99% of Entering Freshman Have Facebook

Man, I wish I had had Facebook when I was a college student!
Things have changed so much since when I was in college, way back in 1992, which, in terms of years, was not all that long ago, but in terms of technology, I may as well have gone to college with John McCain. Here’s an article from Amherst College, where apparently 99 percent of all of their incoming students have Facebook pages. Only six members of the 2012 class have not joined the class group on Facebook.

In fact, this group of students at Amherst shares some pretty incredible statistics about the incoming Class of 2012 in general. While their incoming freshman class is made of only 438 students, these numbers must be indicative of technology trends across college campuses everywhere.

• One in two students are likely to be carrying an iPhone or an iPod Touch
• 370 people registered 443 iPhones, gaming units, etc.
• Only 14 brought desktop computers; 5 have landline phones
• Current classes of 2009 and 2010 are most likely to use Windows; classes of 2011 and 2012 are most likely using Mac

These days, I’m making up for lost time with Facebook. There are a few of us “old” people around, and slowly, people from my high school and college classes are finding Facebook. It’s pretty cool that I got back in touch with Steve, my first official college friend, since we met and hung out at college orientation. And my assistant editor from the high school newspaper (the Penndian!) just joined Facebook, which is awesome. I haven’t bothered to make a friend request to the biggest snob in my high school class, who also just joined (although apparently she became a special ed teacher, so who knows? People change).
And maybe it wouldn’t have been that much fun to have Facebook as a college student. I mean, there was already so much drama in my life, and I can imagine that Facebook would have magnified that. Instead of putting a picture with a big black X of my ex-boyfriend on my desk, I could have posted it on Facebook. I mean, I’d like to believe that I would have had more sense than that at age 18, but who am I kidding? (Although the guy in question is actually my Facebook friend now, so I suppose I could still post such a picture!)
Anyway, it really does strike me how much things have changed since college, especially since my much younger sister Samantha started St. Mary’s College this year. When I was her age, I had no cell phone, no computer, no iPod (cassettes, baby!), and no concept of what Facebook even might be. I hope she appreciates it! And those boys at college better treat her right, or I’ll personally be posting photos of them with Xs on on their faces.