Freshmen show early signs of Facebook fervor

Kyle Nelson & Sam Bloch Guest Writers

“Just the thought of having so many friends and being so popular before I arrived at Vassar made me feel so awesome,” said freshman Willa Koerner, admitted Facebook junkie. But Koerner is not the only culprit of pre-frosh Facebook use.

This is the first year that Vassar freshman have had immediate usage of the popular on-line student directory known as the Facebook, and for some of the Class of 2009, their time on the Facebook began as soon as they received their school e-mail addresses early in the summer. Far before they had even moved into their dorms, these students had perused the profiles of their fellow classmates, browsed and networked with each other, and in large part, stalked each other until they met in the flesh.

Now the proud focus of the group “Willa Koerner: Facebook Legend,” Koerner came to Vassar with 120 Facebook friends, but based on her assertion that she had many hot pictures, this is of no surprise. After adding a base of 30 friends, the numerous friend requests began pouring in daily. “If I saw someone who looked cool, I’d add them,” she said. “Random people add me, and if I’d deny them, that’d be cruel.”

But with time, Koerner has come to regret her status as a self-anointed Facebook star. Once moderation set in, she deleted many of the Facebook friends she had not yet met. Facebook gradually stepped aside in favor of more tangible friendships.

Paul Buffa signed up for the website the day he received his school e-mail address, and, like other freshmen, was eager to scope out his class, but takes a more laid back attitude when it comes to Facebook friends. “I don’t care if I have 200 friends,” he said. Through the directory, he and a group of eight Vassar ’09ers met in New York City this summer and hung out for the day. But of his 90 friends, Buffa was only able to meet these eight before school had started.

Though Sara Cornish was wary of adding many friends, she began to add people based on proximity and common interests. Eventually, she added older students to find classes and professors. She even had coffee with one sophomore to discuss options in environmental studies, her theoretical major.

“It was nice having a few connections before coming here,” she said.

Despite the spate of freshmen Facebookers, Emily Riehl-Bedford has abstained from it. In fact, before coming to Vassar, Riehl-Bedford was completely oblivious to the concept of the Facebook.

But Riehl-Bedford has succeeded in making friends despite not having a Facebook account, and sees an element of stalking in its design. “I’d rather have someone find out who I am by meeting me than [by] secretly looking me up.”