These days, the Facebook Initiation looms over just about any middle schooler’s head. New students are ‘friended’ by the second day of class, friends met through summer camp are ‘added’ immediately after they return home; and friends introduce other friends to more friends through the far reaching hold of Facebook.
I was assimilated into the craze back in ’07 when I entered a new middle school. As I neared a couple hundred friends in a few weeks, Facebook’s widespread grasp on my peers (and myself) was apparent. Pictures from “hang outs” and birthday parties were uploaded and ‘tagged’ that night for others to view and comment on. The inside jokes and memorable moments of the day were made personal statuses followed by a chain of other friends’ names who also in on the joke. Forgotten homework assignments were inquired about on other students’ ‘Walls’. Said Walls were seemingly preferred over Instant Messaging as friends chatted and posted messages in one minute intervals on each other’s pages. (I soon came to find out that the more posts on your Wall, the cooler you seemed). After a month of Facebook, I could hardly imagine my thirteen year old "social life" before I got an account.
