With the days of Facebook.com's exclusivity to college students long gone, the site's increasing accessibility has left many professors and parents following the initial swarm of preteens in creating social networking accounts.
Several Tufts professors and administrators have joined the stampede onto Facebook, largely for the site's convenience and modernity as a social network - and have left students questioning the content of their profiles.
Gabriella Goldstein, administrative director of the Tufts European Center, has had a Facebook profile for two years and said she finds that the difficulty of communication with friends and colleagues is greatly lessened with her use of the site.
"A lot of people I knew were on Facebook, and I thought it would be a great way to stay in touch with them," Goldstein said. "Sometimes people will respond to Facebook messages before they will answer an e-mail."
For Goldstein, Facebook has also reunited her with friends from high school and her undergraduate years at Tufts.
Others have met Facebook with more resistance. For lecturer Michael Fournier, who teaches in the Experimental College, it took continued pressuring from friends to sign up for what would be his third networking page.
"People started bugging me about Facebook, and I thought, 'Do I really have to make friends with people for a third time?'" said Fournier, who has been a user for several months.
Still, Fournier admitted that Facebook provides a certain communicative luxury.
"There are these little pockets of people, friends that I used to work with. I have my friends that I worked with on Newbury Street and my friends from the Jewish deli," Fournier said. "It's an easy and noncommittal way to keep in touch with people."
Another familiar face on campus, Lecturer of English and Music Michael Ullman, was encouraged to get on Facebook for its utility as a photo-sharing platform.
"I got a Facebook account while teaching at Talloires. I took a lot of pictures there, and many of my students wanted copies," Ullman said in an e-mail. "I started sending the pictures one by one and found it impossible, so someone suggested Facebook."
With various motivations fueling the plunge, a handful of parents have also acquired Facebook pages, inciting mixed feelings in those users who are connected not only by network but also by blood.
Sophomore Tim Fitzsimons has dealt with the issue, as his mother recently joined the site to stay in touch with friends from work.
"Since she hasn't friended me yet, it's not that strange," Fitzsimons said. "If she did friend me, I think I would have to purge my profile."
With many students posting photo albums of nightlife highlights, sending public gifts to significant others, and writing personal messages on friend's walls, there is a question as to whether the professor-student relationship will take a new direction as professors gain greater access to their students' personal information.
Fournier said he has avoided peeking into the personal aspects of students' profiles. "I don't really snoop around too much," Fournier said. "I just don't want to know those things."
Both Ullman and Goldstein said that they have unintentionally noticed private details.
"I don't actually look that closely, but sometimes I see things I would rather not see," Goldstein said.
Ullman has stumbled upon amusement not only in perusing the profiles of his Facebook friends but also in the more interactive realm that has come alive with the advent of applications.
"The most amusing thing I've read was a message from a young woman I know to her boyfriend, which she chose to publicize," Ullman said. "My youngest friends also seem to want to poke me, throw things at me, challenge me to become a zombie ... or was it a Ninja? I've resisted so far."
Citing the tamer enjoyments that Facebook provides, Ullman has delighted in seeing what movies top his friends' lists, attempting to share his favorites as well but impeded by his minimal experience with the site.
"I found myself making a list of my favorite movies on Facebook," Ullman said. "It showed up for a while and now seems to have disappeared. Obviously I did something to the list ... I am not an expert in Facebook."
As a writer, Fournier visits Facebook regularly to play a round of Scrabulous, a board game application on the site, when he's in need of a break.
"I play at lot. If I'm at the point in my writing where I get stuck, I can play Scrabble for a just a couple of minutes."
Both Ullman and Goldstein frequent Facebook at most several times every few days, a figure far less than that of the average college student, who may spend several hours a day on Facebook alone.
"I really don't spend a lot of time on Facebook and can't quite figure out what people who do spend a lot of time there are doing," Ullman said.
While some students don't hesitate to add favorite professors as their friends on the site, others question the effect Facebook might have on the traditional student-professor relationship.
"Even though professors know what is going on in college, you are dealing with them on a more professional level," senior Kaitlin Storck said. "I would much rather have a parent see my Facebook than a professor."
Griffin Pepper, a sophomore, is a Facebook friend with his father, who mainly uses the site for professional purposes.
"My dad is a consultant for burgeoning actors, and he's used it as a networking tool for work," Pepper said. "He's also friended some of my friends here."
While many may leap to apply privacy settings, Pepper doesn't feel the need to hide anything.
"I don't find it really weird because my dad is a pretty chill guy," Pepper said. "I'm cool with him seeing all of my pictures; he can see what I do. Sometimes it's just one more way that he can peek into my life here."
Storck said she feels that parents shouldn't be restricted from seeing what happens in their child's life via Facebook.
"It's college, and if you think your parents think you are an angel, you are probably in denial."
