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Finding a Roommate: Facebook Pros and Cons
By Jeff Canning | For StudentAdvisor.com
With the majority of incoming college
freshmen
on Facebook,
students no longer meet their new roommates on move-in day. Instead,
many of
them have had several weeks or months of online interaction.
Having a better sense of familiarity
has made it easier to
break the ice for new students and has translated into a faster sense
of
community on campus.
“The
majority of our
students meet their assigned roommates on Facebook after being notified
by our
housing office,” said Jamey
Handorf, assistant director of residence life at Eckerd College
in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“They seem to form bonds as roommates
and, on a larger scale,
as an entire class through Facebook before they get here. We’ve noticed
that
the difficult ‘getting to know everyone’ stage during the first month
has been
less stressful for many students because they have already met and
formed a
virtual community on Facebook.”
While most schools have
questionnaires to help guide them in
choosing compatible roommates, no system is foolproof. Matching similar
personalities can be one of the most challenging tasks residence life
staff face.
Facebook has proven to be a helpful tool in keeping roommates together.
Some schools, such as Otterbein
University in Westerville, Ohio, have received
specific requests of
roommate pairings from students who met over Facebook and chose each
other.
Director of Residence Life Tracy
Benner believes “roommates who select each
other have a vested interest to stay together,” instead of simply
seeing the
relationship as something forced upon them.
The social media site provides
another medium for students
to communicate with each other and the residence life staff in a form
that is
convenient for students to use.
“Facebook
gives
students a forum to ask questions and get answers quickly and I think
many
students are more likely to ask questions on Facebook than they are to
pick up
a phone and call our office,” said Benner. “It’s great for advertising
events,
posting photos of activities and sharing lots of information in a
format
students like.”
However, Facebook communication is
not without its faults.
While Facebook can provide a sense of familiarity, it is also building
a
relationship on top of an online foundation instead of face-to-face
interaction.
“Because
Facebook
interactions are often superficial, roommates are sometimes surprised
when they
actually live with someone who seemed so compatible or ‘cool’ on
Facebook, but whom,
in reality, turns out to be a ‘bad’ roommate,” said Eric Lassahn,
director of
residence life at Susquehanna
University
in Selinsgrove, Pa.
The false premise Facebook might
create can cause unexpected
disappointment, but students assumptions can also be difficult
obstacles to
overcome as the relationship first begins.
“Sometimes
students
learn something on Facebook that they decide they don’t like about a
future
roommate without even talking to them about it. They no longer want to
take the
chance to learn about their roommate in person,” said A.J. Nudo, assistant
director of residence life at Misericordia
University in Dallas, Pa.
“We try to get roommates to get
through at least the first
semester. They often find that once they see each other and spend some
time
together, the issues they had based on the other’s Facebook page have
gone
away.”
Seeing the same problem, John
Jobson,
associate dean of
students and director of residential life and housing at Hope College
in Holland, Mich., frequently encourages using other
methods of communication outside of Facebook to build a relationship.
“Face to face, FaceTime, Skype, or having a phone conversation each allow for richer communication since people are able to utilize other cues, such as facial expression and tone of voice,” said Jobson. “These richer forms of communication may allow for a deeper relationship to develop.”
How did you develop a relationship
with your first roommate? Let us know on Twitter
or Facebook!