I Link You

How Facebook participation has skyrocketed since we are now abroad

Earlier this year, I did a project for my internship regarding motivations for social networking. One top reason that many young people participate in Facebook is the ability to use Facebook as means to stay connected to old friends and family who are not in your immediate vicinity. Facebook provided an efficient method to keep track of all your high school friends at other colleges and see what they are up to. Since college is a very tumultuous time and I usually never have time to have meaningful conversations with my high school friends over the phone, Facebook provided the necessary tools ranging from photo albums to Wall posts in order for me to stay involved with my friends’ lives despite the distance.

Now that I am studying abroad, the importance for me to keep connected to my friends becomes more important than ever. Truthfully, I usually never have time to actively get involved with Facebook such as creating photo albums or write Wall posts. As many of my friends were just a phone call away, I never felt the need to use Facebook as means of communication. Now that I am in another country, I don’t have the luxury of using my cell phone to communicate with both my college and high school friends unless I want to pay exorbitant per-minute rates. In addition, my desire to share my experiences in Paris through photos coincided with the need to upload photo albums every day to my Facebook profile. Even the students on the program are browsing through Facebook more often and uploading several albums per day.

Does distance play a huge factor when keeping in touch with friends? Due to the need to feel connected on a tight budget, many college students will actively look for other means to stay connected and increase their online presence in applications with social networking aspects such as Facebook, MySpace, and Blogger.

posted by Koh @ 4:28 PM