Students Say Something Through Social Networking

Text messaging, IMs, video messaging, emailing, podcasts, and weblogs, oh my! Add social newtworking sites like Facebook and MySpace to the equation and you have over a thousand ways to remind your spouse to pick up some milk on his or her way home from work or wish your old college roommate a happy birthday.

No longer is what you say important, but how you say it. The politics of these social networking sites have become a part of pop culture. Walking the halls of campus, I tend to hear girls over the Facebook "status" (a minute by minute feed update similar to Twitter) of a certain love interest or an arch enemy. Guys brag over the pictures they were "tagged" standing beside attractive females or expensive bottles of alcohol. 

Everything you do on Facebook is a disclaimer to the world, making the social networking site, a world of its own. Here people convene in groups for a plethora of reasons: to show solidarity for atrocities like genocide or human rights violations or share a likeness for their favorite TV shows and movie actors. In addition, users can schedule events, invite friends, and message attendees. 

Thinking about it, Facebook itself encompasses an infinite and one ways of communicating. But with a so many ways to spread a word, are what we say as important as how we say it? This reminds me of the ending to the famous poem by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, entitled, "The Paradox of Our Time:"

"A time when technology can bring this letter to you

And a time when you can choose

Either to make a difference.... or just hit, delete."