In my saunter back from an absurdly overcrowded Subway today, I decided to grab a copy of the student paper. Amidst the disproportionate number of football articles (hurray!) and a story on how flip flops are bad for you (I knew it!), I came across a writeup titled "Frats Sweat Pledge Rates". I didnt pledge a fraternity as a student and normally such an article wouldn't warrant any interest from me. But something about the marinara sauce in my little subway baggy and the natural gas fumes from a passing CATA bus came together to sway me into reading it. And yes, I know that makes no sense.
The article was talking about the concern among fraternity leaders that pledge numbers were going to see a substantial drop off as compared to last year. Not really my cup of tea. But just as I was about to send out an email tirade about how I always knew flip flops were evil, a line in the article stopped me dead in my tracks.
"The decrease can be attributed to a smaller freshman class and being unable to use Facebook to invite potential members to greek events, Interfraternity Council President (IFC) Grant Miller said."
Can I get an errrrrrrt with a little beep beep beep? Back that up playa. Say again? Greek numbers are suffering because of Facebook? And with that, writer Katie Maloney had reeled me back in. My hatred of flip flops would have to wait.
The readers digest version plays out like this. Last year, the IFC had used Facebook as a tool to communicate with incoming freshman, and pledge numbers soared. This year, Facebook has changed its privacy policy, mass mailing/ inviting people is considered spam, the Facebook campaign could not continue, and subsequently pledge numbers are expected to get the hurt put on them this year. This at a school that consistently ranks as one of the top Greek Schools in the country.
On the surface this isnt anything earth shattering. If you have a successful marketing tool, removing that tool is going to hurt you. That much is fairly obvious.
We know Facebook is a huge part of the Penn State student experience, and only become more so with each incoming class. But if the ties to facebook are so strong that NOT being a part of it will leave a group as well known as the Penn State Fraternity system in the dust... wow. And of course the irony of needing a social network to build a social network can't be lost...
But take that a step further. A Greek Organization is, as its core, a social network. Maybe its socially based, or professionally based, or lifestyle based but it is a group of people who come together around a common purpose. Being a part of your local network, or chapter, can then lead to interactions with other parts of your brother or sisterhood. A strong Greek organization can transcend the boundaries of space and time (no not Star Trek style) to bring people together around something... a cause, an idea, a shared experience, a belief. Sound like anything else we know of?
So if both Greek Organizations and social networking sites like Facebook share a similar purpose, could the new replace the old? Unlikely, in my humble opinion, but only because the real world experiences that bond people to those organizations cannot yet be replaced by anything the interweb can offer. In some instances, the internet might be finding alternatives, but there are some things that, for the foreseeable future "first life" will never loose hold of. At least not yet...
I do, however, think we're going to see a revolution in the way that real life networks function because of sites like Facebook. Even as little as a few month ago, the thought that your real world social life might require a login was an absurd idea. But maybe its not so far fetched after all...
Image from Answers.com
