On September 26, 2006, creator Mark Zuckerberg opened Facebook to anyone with an email address. To college students’ horror, the over-35 set registered in troves — including not only our parents, but also our professors. Old people can now track our mundane daily events, see who our friends are, read our favorite quotations and click through our photo albums. Now with 300 million members — about equal to the population of the United States — Facebook allows parents and professors alike to study up on our dirty secrets. Students no longer dominate Facebook.
While young adults still hold the majority of profiles, the 35-and-older group is the fastest-growing demographic on Facebook. And for students here at Northwestern, that includes our professors and TAs.
Political science professor Jerry Goldman says he created his Facebook profile two years ago and checks the site daily. “I was curious about social networking, so I decided to give it a try.”
Goldman, who has 122 friends, says while he is friends with some of his students, he tries to only include people with whom he has a genuine connection. “The freshmen in my seminar last year thought [my Facebook page] was cool,” Goldman says. “They could see some of the pictures I posted, like my dogs in their Halloween costumes or of me with my family. I don’t mind sharing that. But some stuff, like if I find a new scotch, doesn’t need to be shared.”
And Goldman holds the same attitude towards his students’ profiles. “Facebook paints a wide picture of someone,” he says. “I don’t want to know how many students get shitfaced drunk and how often they party. It’s okay for me to communicate, but not to investigate.”
Just because your professor is on Facebook doesn’t mean you have to grant them access to your profile. However, some students enjoy the opportunity to get to know their professors outside of the classroom setting.
Weinberg sophomore Derek Kiebala, one of Goldman’s students last year, didn’t seem bothered by extending his hand in Facebook friendship. “I figured it would be a good way to get to know him a little more personally, by being able to click through his profile and by opening up mine to him,” he says. “I thought it was pretty cool to be Facebook friends with a professor.”
While many students try to rack up their friend count past the thousands, most professors value each accepted friend request. Medill professor Loren Ghiglione is one of many new users who use Facebook to reconnect with old friends, not make new ones. Decades after his high school graduation, Ghiglione has found a way to bring his past to the forefront. “I went to a high school that no longer exists, and I’m in the class of ’59 and we had a 50th reunion,” he says. “Facebook was one of the mechanisms that people used and I think it served a useful role there.”
But as Ghiglione has discovered, Facebook can forge new connections as well as old. The vast social network extends beyond just high school girlfriends or childhood neighbors. Ghiglione has been exploring his personal past for a project he’s started. “I’m thinking about [writing] a book on identity in America and for that, I want to begin by researching my great-grandparents who came from Italy as indentured servants.”
For Ghiglione, Facebook has proved a valuable tool in furthering his research. “So I’m going to Italy in a few weeks and I’ve been interested in finding people, the Ghigliones. When somebody, even if I don’t know them and they have the same last name, contacts me, I say yes. It’s an interesting device that way,” says Ghiglione.
Even teaching assistants communicate through Facebook, but that shouldn’t be so surprising. Many of them joined the social networking site while it was still only open to college students. English TA Rachel Blumenthal created her profile her senior year. She says she still regularly checks it, but mostly focuses on her friends, not her students.
As for the immediate future, Goldman has a plan on how to update his profile next. “I’ll probably put on my Facebook page that I just had an interview with North by Northwestern. Maybe even have a link to this article when it’s published.”