Facebook to the rescue

Lauren Wong
July 7, 2010
Filed under Features

It is ten minutes before one in the morning, but a single light is still on and has been for the past five hours. Beneath it, a helpless ‘Iolani student battles with her physics homework—the one that was due yesterday. The numbers were turning into chicken-scratch before her closing eyes, and each equation morphed into gibberish.

Half asleep, the student searches Facebook for a source of relief. Strangely enough, a small red speech bubble on her page tells her that she has one new notification. She clicks the box mechanically, and there it is: a picture of the chapter’s lecture notes with her entire physics class tagged in it.

Kara Onouye, a junior, was most likely the one who took the picture. “When [my teacher] writes any solutions up on the board, I take a picture of it and put it on Facebook, then I tag my class in it.”

This is just one of the many possibilities for ‘Iolani Facebook users. Intended to be a social networking site targeting college students, Facebook has been able to make communication between students a little more efficient. Although that student trying to finish her homework will have to work out the answers herself, little aids such as Onouye’s picture simplify the rigorous process.

“It’s useful if you want to get in touch with people,” Amanda Tsuhako, an ‘Iolani junior and a Facebook user for two years, said. “I don’t want to call someone’s house because it’s so awkward.”

Junior Danielle Acacio also sees benefits in Facebook. “You can communicate with your classmates more easily,” she said online. “Studying [with others] isn’t limited to a phone call or on school campus.”

The site’s useful features also help many students with their studies and to get in touch with each other. Around July of every year, students turn to Facebook’s “notes” feature to compare class schedules with their friends. A “group” is formed for every grade, and sometimes is even used for student body election campaigns. These groups can post announcements and schedule events that can be seen by all members.

“I remember events like the Dramathon and Lyon Arboretum [that were posted] on Facebook,” said Onouye, a Facebook member since the beginning of the school year. “With probably about three-fourths of the school on [the site], it’s useful to spread announcements around.”

Several study groups have also formed on the site. During the last semester exams, the sophomores created the group “10^th Grade Final Notes” that allowed their classmates to post “English notes, chem notes, bio notes, whatever notes you like add.”

Students are not the only ones taking part in this Facebook frenzy. Teachers are also members of the growing site.

“Facebook is a great way to waste time,” Dr. Mark Lindsay, a Facebook member for over a year, said in an e-mail.

At school though, the benefits of Facebook cannot be accessed. In the labs around campus, the social networking site, along with many others, has been blocked.

“Facebook is one of the social sites that ‘Iolani wants to limit [student access to],” Darryl Kimura, an ‘Iolani network specialist, said. “It could be useful as a method of communication, but whether that’s what students primarily use it for is another question.”

School computers primarily block sites that are illegal and should not be available from a school campus, and this includes ones that people spend a lot of time on for non-academic uses, according to Kimura.

Onouye disagrees with the school’s actions. “Facebook is really beneficially to ‘Iolani as a community. Without it, it’s a lot harder for information to spread and for people to get involved [in school activities].”

“I’m not sure if there would be a good use for it at school,” Lindsay said. “It might be good in studying social behavior in some way for economics or psychology classes, or something like that.”

Ann Truong, a senior, doesn’t completely agree that Facebook distracts all students. “It depends how much self-control you have.”

“It really does depend on how much self-control you have,” Trent Nakamura, a junior, said in response to Truong’s comment online. “For the last hour I’ve been procrastinating on Facebook. It is really addictive.”

Facebook may be considered as one distraction to some students, but for others the site hardly matters. “I only go on to Facebook about two times each week,” Tsuhako said. “For me, TV is more distracting.”

Even though it may pull students away from their homework, Facebook still has many useful tools that allow people to easily share information. The benefits of Facebook create a connection between students not only socially but academically as well. So will Facebook always be blocked from school computers at ‘Iolani?

“If [the site] shows to be more useful than not,” Kimura said, “I don’t see why it should be.”