Does your Facebook hurt, 'cause it's killing me

Facebook in the middle of class. We might not do it ourselves, but we’ve all seen it. Lecture is boring, students opt for Facebook.

Woot.

Because Facebook gets you to use your brain in ways professor XYZ never will. Facebook gives you skills.

Research skills: Who was Bobby’s date for the prom? Detective skills­: When did Bobby “get in a relationship with” Jane, and where was their first date? Creeper skills: What kind of posts did Jane leave on Bobby’s wall last year? Friendly hellos or suggestive double entendres?

Ah, Facebook. ...it can even teach you how to sow your crops in Farmville.

With all the hours college students devote to Facebook studies, it really is a shame that IU hasn’t decided to add Facebook as its own department.

Imagine: a minor in Facebook. Most students would be able to fulfill all 18 credit hours in a single week.Maybe it could show up on an
unofficial transcript.

Course credit or not, at least IU allows students to use Facebook as a necessary extracurricular.

Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has taken a different approach entirely. Not only do they ignore the students’ overwhelming interest to explore creeper studies in the classroom, they flat-out blocked Facebook and other social media websites on campus or the week of Sept. 13.

What possessed Harrisburg University’s Provost Eric Darr to implement this hellish blackout? What kind of nightmarish punishment is this?

Evidently it’s not a punishment at all, rather an “exercise” for students to reflect on how they use social technology.

Then they write essays on the “social media exile” experience. Pretty nifty for a technology school to ban social Internet sites, right?

Honestly, I think it’s a super idea.

I’ve been Facebook-free for more than a year now, and to everyone’s surprise. ...I’m still alive. But what if this little Harrisburg experiment could go bigger? After all, the university only has 800 students, and it operates out of a single 16-story
structure.

But Harrisburg’s blackout must be somewhat important, if the Tosh.0
website caught wind of it.  Or is it merely comical?

Jimmy Fallon even made a jab saying the students’ reflection essays will be titled, “We All Have Smart Phones, Dumbass.”

Touché, Jimmy.

I agree, the ban’s impact couldn’t have been too astronomical, but at least it made an attempt to raise awareness on Facebook-dependency.

And if I had a death-wish, I just might suggest that IU try out this challenge.

But I’m not saying that. Not really.

It seemed to work for Harrisburg, but I have a feeling that IU students know their rights of Facebook freedom and wouldn’t think twice about organizing a campus-wide protest (via Facebook, of course).

Harrisburg’s provost raises an interesting point during an interview with National Public Radio. Aware of the exercise’s loopholes, (e.g. borrowing a friend’s phone to check Facebook) Darr is interested in asking the question, “What compelled you to do that?”   
So, although the sites are still accessible in reality, the “blocking” of the social websites still requires students to think about their motivations.

Of course, blocking the social websites is only a temporary means of raising awareness, but Jaron Lanier, a prominent social media critic, might have
the next great idea.

Lanier critiques social media, and Time magazine named him one of the most influential people of 2010. Facebook druggies, beware.

Lanier suggests that each time a person accesses social media, they should donate a penny to charity.

Doing so would make Facebook “into something that’s more conscious and more considered,” Lanier said.

I’m all for trying to kick the Facebook habit, but even this penny donation seems far-fetched. It would certainly raise money for good causes, but would this measure even be enough to get people to think twice?

I have my doubts.

If by some random craziness Facebook did actually add a penny-tax, what would stop some new tech-y college kid to design a twin version of Facebook?

It could be called MyFace. And it would be free. As it should be.
But with the “freeness” of social media comes responsibility and discretion (think time management).

Just a thought: Why not start a real vegetable garden and give real plants to real friends that you see real-face-to-real-face?

Wouldn’t that be charming?

Why not send an actual Happy Birthday card to a friend whose birth date you actually remember without the help of an e-mail alert?

I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Because e-gifts and clip-art are a poor excuse for “thoughtful gifts.”


E-mail: paihenry@indiana.edu