By Jaci Schneider, Opinion Editor

Much Ado About Something

A new black hole has been discovered, and it has made its appearance on campus. No one knows the name of its creator or where it came from, but it appears that it’s here to stay. This new black hole has a seemingly innocent, and even friendly-sounding name, but names can be deceiving. The ACU Facebook is anything but innocent. Soon it will engulf all of campus into a vacuum of unproductivity.

For those who have not yet had the opportunity to be sucked in, the ACU Facebook is a Web site that allows ACU students and alumni to post information about themselves, such as AIM screen names, addresses, majors, favorite books, movies, etc. After creating a profile, users then have the opportunity to invite their friends to join the ACU Facebook. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of sending invitations by e-mail, you can go directly to the “people” page and browse all 1,300-plus people listed and simply click on the names you want to add to your profile.

However, the people you want to add must first confirm that they are, in fact, your friends, before being listed on your page. I suppose this prevents people from arbitrarily choosing people they don’t know as their friends.

So, basically, what all this ends up being is a nostalgic trip back to middle school for college students. We post our pictures (only picking ones that makes us look good, of course), list our favorite books and movies (but not the dorky ones we don’t want people to know we like), and tell our interests and favorite quotes. After we’ve finished constructing the profile we want people to see, we wait for our friends to accept us.

Even though on some levels the ACU Facebook is putting us back through the horrors of middle school, students are gravitating toward it like bees to honey.

I think the main thing about the Web site that draws us all in is the procrastination possibilities of it. If you wanted to, you could spend hours searching all 1,300 students and seeing who likes the same movies and books as you. ACU Facebook is one more thing to check, along with each e-mail account, Xanga, AIM when you log onto your computer. It’s just one more way to put off writing that paper on a topic you know nothing about, and one more thing to do before reading that long chapter in that dry textbook.

I’m sure that ACU Facebook will fade out of the forefront of students’ minds within the next week or so, but I suppose that it could be a nice tool in keeping in touch with people after graduation.

So, professors, please cut us a little slack in grading our papers and quizzes these next few weeks. Just remember, we’ll be tired of Facebook soon and return to our studies, at least until a new black hole appears.