Facebook is a trend that has hit college campuses all over the nation. It is now beginning to incorporate high schools. This “trendy” site is free of charge and allows kids all over the nation connect to one another and stay in touch. I refer to it as the new email. I receive more notes and questions from friends on facebook than I do in my email. For me it has been a place where I began talking with people I never thought I would see again. For example: I dated a girl named Courtney Bogle when I was in 4th grade and at the end of that school year she moved to Malaysia. Less than a year ago I log onto my account and I have a friend request from Courtney Bogle, she now goes to University of Tennessee and drops me a line about once a month. When things such as these happen it really makes you feel like the “small pieces” of the internet. Weinberg was right, we are the small nuggets. Other than connecting people it also provides people a safe place to share ideas about anything. People are allowed to freely start “groups” which can be about anything. These groups often turn into mini forums where people in the group go and give opinions about anything and everything. Another example: I was invited to a club today that was entitled “Austin College Cafeteria gave me food poisoning and they can’t hide it.” I was amazed at how many people had posted in this forum and it was only a day and a half old. People also have started sending these fliers through facebook to their friends letting them know about upcoming events. Nearly every month I get one of these fliers in my message box on facebook letting me know about free bowling on Thursday night. I think this is the type of site that Rushkoff was referring to when he wrote about the “cyberpunk culture”. It is a safe haven from annoying advertisements and retail offers. It is, in and of itself, a self sustaining social community. As social as facebook feels, it, for the most part, is a fairly impersonal place; it is as personal as you allow it to be. The point I am trying to convey is that I can check up on people and how they are doing through facebook without actually communicating with them in any way. All I have to do is check their profile or status. Often times, people change their status multiple times a day and it is surprising how honest some people are. I find it amazing that peoples’ thoughts, incriminating pictures, and lewd comments are all a click away, and no one cares. There are too many people on facebook who are numb to the thought that these pictures have a high potential getting them in trouble. These people obviously have not heard the Michael Campbell story. Nor have they learned about management. Newspaper articles have tried to get the word out about graduate schools checking for incriminating facebook profiles on applicants. Some of these applicants are turned down if the majority of their pictures show them drunk, holding a beer, or flipping off the camera. Before I apply to Medical School I am defiantly going to erase my facebook profile. The large appeal to facebook is the lack of adults or parents. It truly is the epitome of the web in my mind. Facebook represents a large site with free flowing ideas, a place where people can meet people; it is full of entertaining characteristics, a place where people are able to show their true colors by saying exactly what they mean. It is all these things and it reaches out to a demographic of young adults primarily between the ages of 17 and 22.