'Facebook'helps students avoid real friends

House Editorial

Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you never had to leave your room to make friends?
For now, we’ll still wonder. But a new Web site, www.thefacebook.com, is trying to change that.

When we meet someone on the Quad, we don’t exchange lists of political orientations. When we stroll through the commons, we don’t compile archives of home addresses and class schedules — at least most of us don’t. And that’s the way things should stay, because some information is meant to remain private.

Thefacebook.com doesn’t agree.

The newest stalker’s paradise, the site allows students to share almost anything with the world — or at least among the world’s registered users.

Thefacebook.com only fosters a mindless, egoistic competition. The site’s friend counter is a laughable attempt to track superficial popularity. Nobody with real friends cares about who has more friends.

Beside the pointless facade of communication the Web site supplies, thefacebook.com is boring. With no real interaction, the site doesn’t have a purpose. Social interaction can’t transmit through a plastic mouse. A Web site can’t supply the dimension of friendships real relationships do. Go out and meet people instead.

Some say they do meet people in the real world, that the site is just another method to stay connected. We don’t buy it.

There is no fun in a friendship gone digital, especially when that quasi-relationship relies on the absurd love child of instant messenger and livejournal.com. Thefacebook.com offers no desirable alternative to our current, albeit still impersonal, digital interactions. Nobody should wish yet another fictitious community on someone they title "friend."

The only benefit thefacebook.com offers is convenience. But in the world of relationships, who cares? Online dating-like profiles leave little to the imagination. Besides, pictures and profiles lie.

Why not just read the phone book?

It might be a more productive way to spend time. With more than 2,200 JMU students registered, college students must have too little to do. The profile creation, friend scanning and constant updates must take hours. One only can imagine what real friendships could be forged in the same amount of time.

What’s truly at stake, though, is more than a petty argument on the merits of a student’s schedule. We fear the loss of one of society’s greatest pleasures — real social interaction, for which there is no substitute.

Hitting a "confirm" button to befriend another simply won’t do.