‘Facebook is like a potato chip’

About 25 students crammed into the front room of the Asian Culture Center house at 7 p.m. Wednesday to hear communication and culture Assistant Professor Ilana Gershon speak about her research on the effects of going “Facebook official.”\nGershon talked about how young people use different forms of communication – Facebook, e-mail, text messages or phone calls – to send messages about breaking up. Through her research, which is still in progress, she found that the medium someone uses to break up sends different messages and has varied implied meaning. \nFor most people, she said, breaking up over the Internet or phone is still unacceptable, although she said that for those under 25, e-mail often carries formality not seen by those over 25.\nGershon also shared the introduction to a book she is writing about what she calls “the new forms of disconnection,” or how young people use technology to end relationships.\nShe said she began thinking about writing the book after she couldn’t find any reliable research to show her students about the new online mediums.\nGershon divided how people use the Internet into different “media ideologies,” or communities that have a common understanding of its use.\n“You don’t understand that you don’t have shared ideas until you get your heart stomped on a second time,” she said.\nSophomore Joe Martinez said he attended the lecture because he is interested in how people share information with others on the Internet. He said people use forums like Facebook to create a new persona.\n“You have a personal life, a home life and now you have a new hat to wear: your online life,” Martinez said.\nGershon said Facebook can be problematic during and after a relationship, including how it discloses so little actual information.\n“Facebook is like a potato chip. It gives you info, but not enough to satisfy you, so you keep looking,” Gershon said.