Ryan Sholin

You no longer need to be a student with a .edu e-mail address to register for Facebook, a social networking site generally viewed as #2 in the U.S. behind MySpace.

But there are a few buts.

First of all, if I want to identify myself as a student from the start, they still insist on a .edu address. Which I have. Somewhere. And by ‘somewhere,’ I mean ‘good luck trying to figure out how to access your .edu unix account at SJSU, even if you managed to get one a year and a half ago.’

So I can sign up as a ‘none of the above,’ or I can continue to ignore this social networking phenomenon, which most likely, a tiny fraction of SJSU students use, due to the aforementioned .edu address problem we have here.

Well, I went ahead and signed up as ‘none of the above,’ which makes me feel like a lurker, but whatever. Having to use my real name freaks me out a little, but I try not to say anything in these sort of places that I wouldn’t say hanging out in public somewhere.

I’ll try it out, but frankly, I already feel a little weird about it. Everyone can see me.

Maybe this is why ‘ugly’ MySpace succeeds: It looks so disorganized and chaotic that I can’t believe anyone could figure out how to violate my privacy if they wanted to.

Facebook, on the other hand, seems a little…what’s the word? Efficient.

Giving it a shot. I should be easy enough to find there if you’re looking for me.