When Facebook.com first began to emerge as the premier social media network for college students, it captured the freedom and excitement of college life in a way that few could have ever imagined. It was a living, breathing yearbook.
Facebook only allowed individuals that were currently attending a college or university to join. Employers could not view your profile, your news feed was not cluttered with ads from online businesses and your grandmother could not comment on your status. It was the golden age of social media.
I remember the day I was first introduced to Facebook. Alan, a close friend from high school was baffled that I was not yet a Facebook user at that time. “You have to join Facebook. It’s so awesome,” he said. “Just join it and you’ll see what I mean.” There was a sparkle in his eye as he described it.
Everyone was raving about the latest status updates. The act of accepting a friend request carried a significance that is unfamiliar to users today. Invitations to upcoming parties were often posted for everyone to see and the event could remain relatively exclusive. The aftermath of these parties would likely appear a few days later in the form of photographs posted right onto the news feed for everyone to see. College students could post statuses, pictures and everything in between and still enjoy a level of confidentiality that is foreign to many of today’s Facebook users.
It is high time that college students resurrect the idea of having our own platform to connect with one another. We need a social network similar to the Facebook which we once relished. College students have the unique ability to merge the skills and knowledge they have absorbed through their studies with the youthful creativity and eagerness for accomplishment.
A small group of college students at Harvard University once harnessed their ideas into an incipiency that will later define a generation. We, as college students, need to bring back Facebook.
