by Dr. Seuss

Created on: November 01, 2007

Facebook was created for the purpose of being a "social network." It serves this very purpose: you can look up friends from high school or search for that cute guy in your PoliSci lecture. Some teachers or administrators also have Facebook, though. Facebook can be a great way to waste time, but users must make sure they do not replace study time with Facebook time, as many college students have learned in the past few years since Facebook was created.

DO: Limit the amount of "Facebooking" you do when you have homework!
It is very easy to tell yourself "I will just check my Facebook and THEN I will do my homework." An hour later, 20 friends' pages and 10 photo albums later, your homework is still waiting for you to log off. Many college students even go as far to considering themselves "addicted" to Facebook. There are even Facebook groups you can join for the fact of being addicted to the site.

DON'T: Write important messages/have an on line fight to/with someone on Facebook.
It is all too easy to avoid face-to-face confrontations these days. With instant messenger, e-mail, and especially social networking websites like Facebook, many important things are discussed on line instead of in person. If you are having an issue with someone, speak with them in person, don't write on their wall or send them a message.

DON'T: Tag provocative or incriminating photos of yourself.
Many people (girls especially) will post photos of themselves online, when in reality, they would not want EVERYONE seeing such images of themselves. It is very important to know that ANYONE can see these photos and that if you are doing something illegal (drugs, underage drinking) that you can get in trouble from these photos.

DO: Look up old friends!
I used to have a pen pal from Japan when I was in elementary school. I recently logged in to my Facebook account and had a friend request from my old letter writing friend. It is very convenient to look up old classmates or friends from all over the world with the popularity of the site and the easy search engine.

DON'T: Poke someone you don't know.
Facebook users are probably confused about the "poke" option on the website. My freshman year of college (which was after I had recently joined Facebook) I would receive a "poke" from some guy at my school almost every day. One time in the dining hall, I told my friends about it, and learned that they were all getting "poked" as well. We all laughed about it. Lesson to be learned: pokers=losers, unless you are joking around with friends.

DO: Enjoy using Facebook. It is a wonderful website that may suck up a lot of your time!

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