Four Member Interviews about Facebook

The following section is filled with user interviews conducted by me, Jermaine Caldwell, about Facebook. It includes everything from funny stories to defining some unspoken rules to who to "Facebook" and who not to.

These interviews took place over AOL Instant Messenger. Screennames have been omitted and replaced with user1,2, etc. Parts of the conversations that revealed identies also were taken out.

user1
user1: Anyway, question one, facebook is an online community, which serves as a scope book. In the old days we had a scope book with people grouped by sex and first name so we could try and spot people by what you could remember when you were drunk. Did that make us a community, well yeah because the scope book was specically for granville residents, and so facebook is a community, what I do with that information i don;t know, maybe just set the stage for what is next, you know, I resist the notion that it sets the stage, I say it is just part of an etiquette, but that seems a little understating it too, so i say it is another way of catching someone's attention, and the true value of the gesture may not be known for several months or even years in the future, of course the immeidate sexual outcomes could precipitate if there is mutual attraction, and in that case I see as just an ice breaker. No matter what, whether people ask someone to be a friend, the community is searched for a lot of different reasons from procrastination to justs plain nosiness.

user1: question 2, i gain a lot i guess, being one of the first on the chapel hill system was an unexpected benefit, I did not have to make many friends actually to have thousands in my network. I think the people that got added because of affiliation with the Matt Calabria campaign and chase foster are extra special close today because of dual process of electon antics and the novelty of facebook. If anyone has any sense they will back up this network and archive it so it can be rekindled in the future when alumni try to get a hold of lost friends and relive their glory days. In other words, this network will come to life again, when alll of us are in the old folks home instant messaging the last days of our lives

user1: 3 no horror stories, no whore stories, no nothing like that.


user 2:
user2: ive gotten a ton of IMs from random gay freshmen who search for men who are interested in men and find my profile
user2: and they usually say something about how they found me and "thought i was cool"
user2: something im not sure you could accurately determine from an online profile
user2: especially mine, which is only loosely based on myself and largely sarcastic
user2: but that hasnt happened in a while
user2: im having a facebook meet to IM conversation right now, actually
jermainelandon: ah, so you befriended eachother and then switched over the IM communication, eh? how's that going?
user2: we have seen each other in public and probably only recognized each other b/c of facebook
user2: we've sent a few messages back and forth over facebook, but those were few and far between
jermainelandon: what are the chances you think this communication would take place without facebook?
user2: then i just im'd him, and im having one of the longest IM conversations in memory
user2: i dont think i would have felt comfortable IMing him w/o facebook
user2: the only other way to get someone's screenname would be from a third party or by looking it up...both of which seem sketchy
user2: but with facebook ive already kinda met him
jermainelandon: is it because of the profile setup?
user2: and ive seen him in person, and we've said hi
user2: i think it's mostly the picture and the basic info
user2: i dont really read things like music tastes and stuff like that
user2: only rarely will i read what the person writes in "about me"
jermainelandon: why's that?
user2: i guess b/c i dont think it's ever really an accurate representation of their personality
user2: it's completely artificial and impersonal
user2: when do you ever actually say the things out loud that you write in your profile
user2: and it's only a few sentences
jermainelandon: true true. i see.
jermainelandon: what does the amount of friends someone has on facebook say to you about someone, if anything
user2: how awesome they are
user2: /i have over 325 somehow
jermainelandon: yes you do.
jermainelandon: then we can conclude
jermainelandon: user2 = awesome
user2: i think a little bit of it is how hipster you want to see yourself as
jermainelandon: more friends more hip then
user2: it's only an illusion of hip
user2: with no benefit in reality
jermainelandon: does this have to be validated in reality?
user2: of course not
user2: when is it ever mentioned except when directly talking about facebook
user2: people with huge numbers of facebook friends may or may not have that many friends in life
jermainelandon: do you appreciate the greater access of friendster?
user2: yes, but it's intolerably slow
user2: ive since quit using it
jermainelandon: because of its design?
user2: and all of my current friends go to unc anyway, so facebook makes that much more sense
user2: b/c of the speed
jermainelandon: speed is essential. i think they're trying to get better. but i, too, don't use it much.
jermainelandon: how many of your facebook friends would you say you have strong ties with?
user2: define strong?
user2: i think i can be strongly connected with someone without having seen them in a long time
jermainelandon: that's okay. interactions like such fall under strong ties.


user3:
jermainelandon: do you have any profound thoughts about facebook?
user3: hmm
user3: i dont know. at times im obsessed with it but other times i feel it wholly unnescessary
jermainelandon: why obsessed some times?
user3: i dont know. i get hooked. like i look at my friends friends
user3: and then there friends
user3: its just looking at people. its not even like, oh, i want to meet this person. or, oh, they're interesting
user3: its just like a virtual people watching
jermainelandon: virtual people watching, eh? anything ever come of it? find an old friend. flirt. etc?
user3: not really old friend or flirting. but its random, sometimes someone i knew from high school will just add me and we talk for like half a day and thats it
user3: it almost seems like a status thing. like who has the most friends or who knows the best people from other schools
jermainelandon: talk about that someone. is it good to have a lot of friends?
user3: also, i search for people who like the same interests as me.. just to see who they are and how many people
user3: like the same band or something
user3: i mean, its good. but i find it kind of obscene when someone has like 300 friends
user3: who could have 300 friends
jermainelandon: what do you think of people with that many friends?
user3: they're a little full of themselves
user3: they want to project that they are important
user3: when in reality, its just facebook
user3: its like boosting their ego
jermainelandon: what number is too many friends?
user3: people who have like over 200
jermainelandon: gotcha. so you don't think these are actual friendships but just mere acquaintances?
user3: i think like 1/5 or so may be real friendships
jermainelandon: that's a good number /slash/ analysis
user3: sometimes i look at other gay people just to see who they are and what they are like...because im not in touch with the gay community really
jermainelandon: that's what a lot of people say. what does that allow you to do? does it help out?
user3: i mean, im not sure what its helping
user3: i guess knowing that they are out there is good
jermainelandon: does it make it seem like there's a realistic gay community? puts faces with names and friends with friends?
user3: well i guess it does seem like its realistic
user3: theres more than i thought


user4:
user4: a funny story is this girl i know who was the facebook for halloween... she had a profile on her shirt and was going around poking people saying "You have been poked by ME!"
user 4: if you need to get in touch w/ people i think it's a great tool... (a friend) lost his atm card and some girl looked him up on facebook and got it back to him
jermainelandon: really? excellent. do you see it as a place mainly for information exchange or does it have some sorta social component for you?
user 4: social too, i love getting facebook invites. when you meet new people at parties, it's like, "I'll totally facebook you when I get home" so you a) have them as online friends in writing/print, and b) so you have their cell/IM
jermainelandon: how often is that information used. or more specifically how often do these facebooks friends become more than that?
user 4: well i don't like to be facebook friends with someone unless i know them in person
user 4: and from there
user 4: it's just a way to pass the time once you get the core info like contact info... but it's fun to browse friends' friends etc., do searches for people meeting certain criteria
jermainelandon: do you feel a greater sense of community at UNC because of facebook?
user 4: not necessarily a greater sense of community, but i'm really surprised by its prominence, like me and my friends bring it up in convo a lot, lots of time as a joke e.g. "I'm totally facebook'ing him later" or whatever, but you hear other people talk about it too
jermainelandon: what does the number of friends someone has mean?
jermainelandon: (to you)
user 4: it's not so much a commentary on how many friends you have, but how many people you know / how visible you are on campus
user 4: and that's true most of the time, but then there are people who facebook anyone and everyone and that defeats the rule
jermainelandon: gotcha. so that's like a unspoken rule of facebook use. befriend who you know and don't go crazy with it.
user 4: i think so
jermainelandon: how can one tell the difference?
user 4: if you want to facebook the chancellor or something like Registered to Vote, go for it... but leave Tyler D. or The Thundercats out of it
user 4: and from personal experience, it's offensive when someone you don't know facebooks you, and you say, "Do I know you?" and they say, "No, but I thought we could be facebook friends anyway" -- true story
jermainelandon: haha. how did you respond?
user 4: i clicked a little button i like to call "Reject"
jermainelandon: how many people have you rejected?
user 4: oooh i dunno, not too many, i try not to 'cause it's almost offensive to. if i def. don't know them, i'll reject them. if i had a class w/ them or something they can stay, that's fine
jermainelandon: gotcha. do you feel like too much of your information is out there for the public to see?
user 4: i can take any of it down if i ever feel that way
user 4: i'll get stray IMs here and there which are weird, but unless something major happens, i'll keep it up
jermainelandon: understandable
user 4: i did get someone IMing and being like, "are you gay? i want to make fun of you" and i feel like they got my info from facebook... but i blocked them and that was that, no worries
jermainelandon: the random IMs are the worst part of facebook. i get them, too. will facebook be useful for you post-graduation?
user 4: absolutely, i'm hoping people will keep their info up to date and it'll make it really easy to stay in touch
jermainelandon: excellent. i personally love facebook. didn't think i'd get much use out of it. but i'm pretty obsessed nowadays. especially with this project i'm doing /slash/ hoping to finish soon. fingers crossed.
jermainelandon: oh
jermainelandon: last question, promise
user 4: okiedoke
jermainelandon: what do you think about facebook's usability? do you find it easy to navigate? does it have the tools you need, etc?
user 4: definitely, yeah
user 4: i can't think of something i wish i could do that i can't...
jermainelandon: do you use facebook or friendster more often?
user 4: facebook by far, i don't really do friendster anymore