| Oulu Internationals Get Together On Facebook |
|
|
| By Edward Dutton | ||||||
| Wednesday, 27 June 2007 | ||||||
|
The world-wide networking site, which is now rivalling MySpace, allows members to keep up contact with friends, get back in touch with old friends and tell all their friends about what they’re up to. From its beginnings as a purely student-based networking site in the USA, Facebook has grown into a worldwide phenomenon and it is now even possible to buy and sell over the site. Many members report being ‘addicted’ to it, checking the site numerous times a day as it’s become their ‘main source of social co-ordination’ as one member put it. ‘Oulu Expats’ But Facebook has also sporned numerous ‘groups’ relating to universities, schools, towns and even political parties. And now there is ‘Oulu Expats.’ The group, which currently has 97 members, claims to exist for, ‘Those foreigners (students mostly) who ever lived, studied or worked in Oulu, Finland.’ It includes various ‘favourite photos’ of the city and a discussion forum which is currently trying to decide what the best bar in the city is. Facebook has a facility which allows mutually acknowledged ‘Facebook friends’ to write messages on each other’s ‘walls’ and groups have this option for their members. Many of the recent ‘wall messages’ about Oulu are from students who are very positive about the city with one lamenting, ‘I miss the whole Oulu experience a lot!’ At the moment the group is relatively small and is mainly used by former international students at the university but with more and more Expats coming to the city it could certainly grow into a network geared towards current Expat Oulu residents. Other Oulu Facebook groups include ‘Erasmus Oulu’ which is specifically aimed at former International Students at the university and an online fan club for the city’s ice hockey team. ‘Finland’ groups include ‘Everything good comes form (sic) Finland.’ Banned in some offices Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg. Unlike MySpace it allows you to reveal your ‘personal information’ only to your mutually acknowledged ‘Facebook friends.’ It has 25 million members compared to MySpace’s 57 million but it is growing at a far faster rate than its older competitor. It has raised concern on many campuses because it is seen as distracting students and is particularly popular in some Muslim countries where it can otherwise be very difficult for young people of the opposite sex to socialise. Some work places and schools have banned the use of Facebook because students and staff are spending far too long browsing through it.
|
||||||
| Next > |
|---|
