Website links Class of 2008 like never before

Incoming freshmen Nicole Hopkins and Evan Younger live on separate ends of the country, Hopkins in Washington and Younger in Virginia. They will live on separate sides of campus in the fall, Hopkins in Wilson College and Younger in Mathey.

They might not have met deep into the year, if at all.

But with less than a month until school starts, they've already become close friends after using a website that is radically changing how many incoming freshmen meet.

The site, thefacebook.com, lists names, hometowns, hobbies and favorites for about 565 incoming freshmen in profiles. Users can list each other as friends on the site, which has attracted over 190,000 students and alumni since debuting last year.

"In scanning (Younger's) interests, I realized we had a ridiculous amount of things in common," said Hopkins, who has 160 friends listed. "We chatted online and eventually on the phone."

The site already caught the attention of thousands of Princeton students last spring.

Since the World Wide Web was born, incoming students met in online message groups. For many more years, they organized get-togethers in parks and at baseball games, restaurants and museums.

But this website offers masses of freshmen chances to meet — making new friendships more and less intimate all at the same time.

"The service can fuel the precollege excitement of starting a new life by giving students an informal way to learn small details, at the very least, about the people they will most likely spend the next four-years with," said Chris Hughes, a rising Harvard University junior and the site's spokesman.

"It's always somehow reassuring when you find people who have the same taste in music, film or literature," Stuart Campo '08 said.

Oftentimes, students lose touch with their high school friends in college.

But some users say the site might preserve those relationships. It features nearly 50 colleges in its database and that list is growing.

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"I find thefacebook.com to be very useful because it not only gives me the chance to meet some of my fellow '08ers but also allows me to keep in contact with old friends from the past who now go to other schools," Chris Oglesby '08 said.

Some incoming freshmen don't see the site as totally valuable.

They worry it might provoke early expressions of vanity and cheapen freshman bonding.

"Making new acquaintances for support is good, but now that everyone's on thefacebook.com, it's hard and annoying to keep up with all those people," Yiwen Wang '08 said.

Bryan Suchenski '08 added, "There are negatives, such as the pressure to have a spectacular profile or users who seem to add everyone they can find to their friends list."

In addition, Campo said almost everything about thefacebook.com is vain.

"Finding the picture that makes you look as attractive as possible, what could be more vain?" he asked.

Carolyn Urena '08 is one pre-frosh who refuses to become a member on the site.

"I don't think it's a valid way to get to know people. Part of the fun is getting to school not knowing many people and forming friendships with them randomly," she said.

But with half the class online already and several weeks remaining until school starts, it seems clear only more will join.

"It's getting bigger everyday," Hopkins said. "It's a great resource; I hope we're all on there at some point."