Feb. 4 last year, an industrious Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg launched “Thefacebook.” No one expected that less than a year later Thefacebook would become the latest fad on campuses across the nation. An online directory of sorts, Thefacebook allows users to list each other as friends and create social networks. The creators of the site envision students using it as a way to keep track of friends’ contact information and get in touch with people in their classes or with similar interests. The question that remains to be answered is, will Thefacebook live up to its promises or end up in the realm of short-lived fads?

On the surface it seems as though Thefacebook is performing admirably. After only 24 hours registered with the service, this writer was already in contact with three long lost friends. The Northwestern University sailing team reports using Thefacebook to market their organization to new freshmen with outstanding results. Many Greek organizations are learning how to use Thefacebook to increase the effectiveness of their recruitment. According to UW senior Benjamin Weinstein, “Thefacebook offers everyone the ability to connect on levels that they never have before. It’s a new way to communicate with your friends and to see people you haven’t seen in a long time.”

While many UW students share Weinstein’s optimism, many veteran Thefacebook users at schools that have had access to the service for a while are less impressed. It appears that Thefacebook is all the rage when it first arrives at a school but that the excitement doesn’t last very long. According to Cornell senior Dan Greenwald, “Everyone was real addicted to facebook last semester, but it kind of fizzled out when the novelty wore off.” Haverford senior Hat Nim Choi shares a similar sentiment: “I don’t thing this is going to last very long. It’s just a contest to see who has more friends, but I don’t really care. I’m never on it anymore anyway.”

Some students are actually negative about it. Northwestern senior Nat Kozinn describes Thefacebook as “the ultimate stalker tool.” According to Kozinn, students can use Thefacebook to keep tabs on old friends and exes to see who they are friends with and what they are doing.

Regardless of whether or not the appeal of Thefacebook will last through a student’s entire college experience, it is still a valuable tool. Incoming students can register for Thefacebook as soon as they receive a school e-mail address. By registering in advance, freshman can use the site to get acquainted with other new students in their residence halls and classes before even arriving on campus. This benefit of the service will most likely keep Thefacebook from becoming obsolete.

While the ultimate fate of Thefacebook at Madison is unknown, it is certainly going strong for now. UW students have already registered in droves. What is the appeal of Thefacebook? Are people really registering for the service to keep track of old friends and find out from someone in Economics 101 what last night’s homework was, or is it, as Choi says, a popularity contest to see who has more friends? It’s probably a little bit of both. There is no doubt that the features provided by Thefacebook are very handy when it comes to practical applications, but that doesn’t explain the obsessive behavior displayed by many Thefacebook users. Sitting in front of a computer for hours and hours searching for people to add as friends — behavior displayed by many users — cannot be justified by the argument that one is just trying to keep track of their friends’ AOL screennames.

There is no doubt that Thefacebook is a helpful means of keeping in contact with friends both down Langdon street or across the country, but it must be used with caution. If you find yourself spending hours engaged with Thefacebook, step back and reevaluate what you are doing. Thefacebook should not become the next procrastination tool keeping students from doing valuable things with their time, like homework. When used occasionally for its intended purposes, Thefacebook can be a fun and useful website, but if it becomes a popularity contest, a major distraction or a stalker tool, as it has at many other campuses, Thefacebook may prove to be a real disservice to the UW community.

Adam Smith ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and economics.