Relationship Status: It's Complicated.
While Facebooking classmates during lectures, few students stop to consider the implications their involvement in social networking sites have on their daily lives.
Facebookology: The Effects of Social Networking on Relationships, a Women's Week panel discussion, sought to explore the issue last night.
The site, created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, currently has over 64 million users. It is also the number-one photo sharing application on the Internet, with more than 14 million photos uploaded daily.
Sponsored by The Trustees Council of Penn Women, Penn Consortium of Undergraduate Women and the Counseling and Psychology Center at Penn, the panel addressed such issues as when social networking sites like Facebook mirror real life and when they can be destructive.
"Facebook is allowing us to make connections with a variety of people" said panelist and Penn alum Lee Humphreys.
Fellow panelist Robert Kurzban, associate professor of Psychology, concurred, drawing parallels between the beginning of a relationship in the "real world" versus on Facebook.
"Not indicating anything is actually indicating something" mused Kurzban, who noted that studies have shown that while many students choose not to display their relationship status at all, men are more inclined to announce a relationship on sites like Facebook earlier than their female counterparts.
Kurzban was also amused by Facebook's ability to virtually poke others, an action he equated with making eye contact or passing a note in class.
Junior class President Brett Perlmutter and Panhellenic Council President Drew Tye represented the student view. Perlmutter, a self-proclaimed avid Facebook user, admitted "one of the main ways I use Facebook is for promotion [of events]."
Tye, however, sees Facebook as an academic hindrance. "In my opinion, Facebook is 100 percent addictive."
The panel's last speaker, Meeta Kumar, associate director of CAPS, added that Facebook can have value in terms of maintaining friendships.
"Relationships are one of the basic needs we have. . For many people, [Facebook] is an easy way to augment social connections."
College senior Lauren Berg agreed. "I'm moving to California next year and am relying on Facebook as a way to keep in touch."
