Mark Zuckerberg is probably the most popular computer science major who ever lived. He makes thousands of new friends every day. You're probably one of them.
Zuckerberg's brainchild, thefacebook.com, is growing daily as Facebook adds new schools and features to its Web site that serves to network college students. Zuckerberg's mission statement states it helps people by connecting social networks in nationwide colleges and universities, but Facebook has also taken on a distinct culture of its own, especially at Boston College.
BC was one of the first schools on Facebook, so BC students have had some time to both embrace Facebook as a serious network and also jokingly use it to outwit each other. While Facebook faces several legal challenges with its growth, BC students still insist on finding the humor.
Almost immediately after Facebook's arrival at BC, students started to get bored with their own identities and create new ones. People like William Henry Harrison, Derrick Zoolander, Gandalf, Danny Glover, Jesus Christ, and even Boston College itself all grace the Facebook as BC students.
The Facebook Mafia even appears as a Dartmouth student. Over the past semester and summer, these pranks have set the tone for Facebook's reputation.
"My sister's really obsessed with Zoolander so it started out as a joke for her," said Emily Zarookian, A&S '06. "It just kept going from there." Zarookian admitted that she does not know most of the people who have invited her to be her Facebook friend. "Lots of people want to be friends with Zoolander. Who wouldn't?"
Bill Przylucki's, A&S '07, career of impersonating Danny Glover was part of a group effort. "A whole group of my friends started coming up with fake names," he said. "My roommate is William Henry Harrison." Przylucki had been watching a Danny Glover film in class and took the idea from there. He claims to be among the first people to register with fake accounts.
"I have about 300 friends, and most of them are unsolicited," he said. "I don't really invite people to be my friends. Danny Glover just sits back and waits." Przylucki got a good laugh when Danny Glover was arrested in the Sudan and people sent him messages "supporting me and my cause."
"I have my own Facebook profile, but I read Danny Glover's much more," he said. "You should watch for opening times for his new movies in his profile."
One of Facebook's most popular characters is Jesus Christ, who has 439 friends. Christ boasts a Faith, Peace, and Justice major; his favorite books are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; his favorite music is gospel; and his interests include Mel Gibson films.
"Of course, it started as a joke," said Greg Gagnon, Christ's Facebook creator and A&S '06. "My roommate at the end of sophomore year got really excited about the whole Facebook thing and was taking it to the nth degree. At first I was anti-Facebook, but I figured if I'm not going to be myself, I want to be Jesus."
Gagnon was raised Catholic, but does not see anything immoral with impersonating the Son of God. "I'm not pretending to be Jesus Christ," he said with a serious tone. "I just made the profile as if Jesus really had one. It's supposed to be irreverent."
Gagnon's Jesus quickly gained unsolicited popularity. "As Jesus, I never invited anyone. After all, in the true spirit of Jesus, you have to come to know Him. I accept all invites. Isn't that what Jesus would do?"
Even at a Jesuit school, Gagnon has not received negative feedback about his joke. "Sometimes people ask serious or spiritual questions," he said. "One person asked if they were allowed to be my friend even if they were Jewish. I just said, 'Hey! I'm Jewish, too.'"
Even among all these Facebook laughs, the enterprise has a more troublesome side. Over the past few months, Facebook has faced various scandals that potentially threaten its lighter side.
According to the Harvard Crimson and the Columbia Spectator, an "e-war" ensued between the two Ivy Leaguers when Columbia student Adam Goldberg created CUCommunity, a network for Columbia students similar to Facebook. When Zuckerberg created Facebook out of Harvard and extended it to colleges across the nation, many Columbia students protested the "rip-off" in letters to the editor of the Spectator. One letter by Tao Tan, a Columbia freshman, reads like a political manifesto, calling the university to arms.
As a result, a group of students at Harvard "Google-bombed" the Spectator. "Google-bombing" is a way of manipulating the Internet search page google.com so that certain search phrases bring up a certain Web site. In this case, the search phrase "worthless rag newspaper" brought up the Spectator.
As retaliation, Columbia students made sure the search phrase "CUCommunity rip-off" brought up thefacebook.com.
As the war continued, several Columbia students requested Columbia
University not be included on the Facebook. Eventually, the war subsided, and Columbia remains on Facebook's list of schools.
Rumors are also spreading that Facebook has had offers from larger companies for the purchase of the enterprise. Such a buy-out would have serious privacy issues, but Zuckerberg and his spokesperson did not respond to inquiries about this rumor.
Gagnon, who also has a real Facebook profile, said he sees no problem with privacy issues. "There's not much on there that you can't get out of a phone book. I'm not really taking Facebook that seriously, and I don't think anyone does."
Just last week, Facebook faced another challenge as Tyler Winklevoss, a co-founder of ConnectU.com at the University of Connecticut, filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg for stealing the idea. According to the Boston University Daily Free Press, Winklevoss claims Zuckerberg stole the idea while helping program Winklevoss's website. Neither Winklevoss nor Zuckerberg's spokespeople could be reached for comment at press time.
While Facebook and its competitors gear up for the competition, BC students are maintaining a sense of humor about their whole sage. "Why wouldn't you have a sense of humor about it? It's a really goofy thing," said Darcy Briggs, A&S '05. "I guess at BC, we don't have a huge techie population. I haven't seen anyone walking around trying to start an enormous company recently."
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