A Fresh Perspective: How Facebook is saving and destroying my life

Hello, fellow Norsemen and Norsewomen! I’m Jena Schwake, a first-year student here at Luther. I’m from Sumner, a small, rural community in Northeast Iowa. Let me put into perspective just how small it is; I graduated in a class of 62 in a town with roughly as many students as we have here on campus. Although it has been a rather large adjustment, the friends I’ve met have made the transition much easier with their cheery hellos, helpful advice and memorable moments. With this column, I plan to chronicle many of the trademark—and not-so trademark—events of freshman year: perhaps Paideia, or the wildlife of the Luther College campus, and probably many of the important “firsts” of college life.

Unfortunately, I must admit that I’ve been rather unproductive during my down time between classes. I never thought I’d say this, but I have spent more time on Facebook during my first week of college than I have in the past year. It’s been so long since I didn’t know what my 326 closest friends were doing every hour of the day; I don’t even remember how we lived in a world without constant status updates. However, I must admit, some statuses tend to be a bit overbearing: “Jena Schwake has class at 9:15, back to my room, lunch with peeps, class at 12:15, nap, work, supper, homework, then chill and go to bed ... text me!” With details like that no one ever needs to text her friend ... Everyone already knows what she’s doing!

The funny thing is, as much as I’m logged in, I’ve developed a solid love-hate relationship with this wonderful social networking site. Just under a week into the school year, Facebook has turned out to be my BFF and my most hated enemy. For example, it’s practically a gift from God for keeping in touch with friends from all over. It’s awesome to check out what my friends are doing here at Luther, back home in Sumner, Iowa, at Ithaca College in New York and even a buddy from Phoenix, Arizona. On the other hand, Facebook definitely played a role in my finishing my first Paideia paper an hour before class. I’d always have the best of intentions—to simply begin writing—but it wasn’t long before Facebook was calling my name. “Just ten minutes,” I’d promise myself. Of course, the end of this story isn’t hard to guess. The enticement of Facebook chat, photo albums, relationship updates and personality quizzes just got the best of me and before I knew it, I’d wasted two hours on that evil site!

In spite of it all, I’m an optimist, so I like to see the silver lining: I maintained connections with the people around me, and I finished my paper successfully. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t on Facebook at the moment, but when it’s crunch time I learned a valuable lesson: just like drinking and driving, you should never Facebook and study. You will get caught!