Although earning a degree is the main goal of college, an important aspect of the college experience is socializing and networking.
The best way to do this? Sit on a keyboard and stare into a computer screen.
Groups on Facebook offer a wide array of ways for students to affiliate themselves with special-interest groups. Clubs at the University require active participation, which means attending boring meetings and pointless field trips, but Facebook groups, on the other hand, require drinking a can of Mountain Dew while you should be doing your homework.
During that next “How are you doing?” chat with your mom, go ahead and tell her that you were connecting with future powerful industry leaders in “Future Big Swingin Dicks of the World.” (There’re currently 5 members in this Oregon group).
The beauty of Facebook groups is that anyone can be part of a special-interest group and be affiliated with others who have a common belief, interest or trait. They display the different sides of people, including political and humorous.
Others offer interesting incentives, like “If this group reaches 400,000 Ill slam my dick in the door.” So far, the global group is up to 22,306. For creator Matt Baessler’s sake, let’s hope that number doesn’t grow to 400,000 by Christmas. Baessler promises to use a “standard bedroom door” and post video of the event online. That probably wouldn’t make for a pleasant gift (Dude, you have to check out this video!).
Even students who protest groups have a place to call home in “Against Groups” (“We are against the forming of all shapes and sizes.”) or maybe “I Create Unpopular Facebook Groups.”
New groups will continue to form as the social networking site recently allowed anyone with a valid e-mail address to join. The site currently has 11 million users.
What entices people to create a group promising to slam their genitals into a doorway? Exposure (literally, in that case). The Internet is a format that gives a voice to anyone, and Facebook groups make up part of that pie. If you make a funny video, you can post it on YouTube. Take a scandalous picture and you can post it on MySpace. The Internet makes it easier to earn that 15 minutes of fame, albeit to a select audience.
The Internet is the only medium that puts users in complete control. The very creation of Internet start-up companies of this decade has proven that regular people can become rock stars. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, now 22, created the site when Harvard was slow to create a student directory. Blake Ross helped start the Internet browser Firefox after he was fed-up with pop-ups on other browsers. The regular, former college Joes became innovative renegades that changed systems that weren’t meeting consumers’ needs.
The modern Internet start-up companies scream American values because of their democratic principles. Former Harvard student Zuckerberg realizes this. When users complained about a news-feed feature that displayed what users were posting, he listened.
“This may sound silly, but I want to thank all of you who have written in and created groups and protested. Even though I wish I hadn’t made so many of you angry, I am glad we got to hear you,” he wrote in an apology letter.
Internet start-up companies will continue to encourage people to air their voice. Hopefully such companies have created better business plans after the demise of Internet start-ups of the ’90s.
In an article about young Silicon Valley creators of recent Internet start-ups, Rolling Stone writer David Kushner observed that “… the long epoch of top-down culture – when publishers, producers and DJs could dictate the tastes of a generation – is fading faster than anyone predicted.”
The actions of modern Internet start-ups have created an environment that gives power to regular people – at the price of slamming some guy’s weenie in the door.
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