Facebook.com is the one watering hole where every college personality -- from the school spirit-y sorority sister, to the video game-designing computer geek, to aspiring academic who studies eight hours a hour -- can unite at one web-site and read about the details of one another's lives. It's a place for students to very publicly parade in photos and in posting on friends' "walls" that last night they did shots with friends and it was "sooo fun;" to update their friends as to their whereabouts in their "statuses;" and to even do a little networking with casual acquaintances through occasional "wall posting" and "pokes."
However, Facebook isn't Myspace. Facebook is not a place of politicking or a hotbed of internet activism the way Myspace might construed or utilized by grassroots activists. It's a place of fun and play and college student recklessness in a very online era.
Many Facebook account holders who have listed their political views as "liberal" are being bombarded with group invitations for activist causes, political campaigns and non-profit organizations. Facebook relies on bridging connections between people who have actually met in person, whereas on Myspace, Facebook's slightly sketchy older cousin, it is more or less appropriate to add strangers as "friends," provided that you have the same interests or you like the same bands. Hence, when students on Facebook are contacted by political organizers and grassroots campaigners, it's invasive and actually hurts the cause of recruiting young people into politics. Political outreach towards more mainstream college students on Facebook seems to actually be pushing young people away from politics, making political involvement seem more like junk mail or annoying pop-up ads than an engaging and important activity.
It is appropriate (and helpful, however) for communities of people who have already met to use Facebook as an online branch of their work. Facebook is actually great for in-person communities, like the fellows of Young People For, the feminist group at Smith College or the College Democrats of New York State, for example, to keep in touch with their members and let estranged members know about upcoming activities.
There are some students, however, who do join lots and lots of activist Facebook groups, despite not being particularly involved in the social sector. In fact, Facebook "politics" has helped entrench a potentially damaging myth in Generation Y: that joining a Facebook group means activism. Many Facebook users express concern over issues (Darfur! Access to emergency contraception! Affordable health care!) and join corresponding Facebook groups... but is likely that this is the extent of what they do about the issue. Many Facebook users have added a "Causes" application to show their espousal of certain philanthropic or political causes and encourage their friends to also espouse the cause and donate money. The number of friends recruited to the cause and the amount of money raised is prominently displayed on a participating Facebook user's profile. It is very likely to see on someone's profile that he or she has recruited many of their friends to a cause, but have raised little to no money. Why? It's partly because college students don't put their money where their mouths are, but it's also because Facebook isn't a place for politicking.
Not to mention, the number of politicians and social justice figures with Facebook accounts is just plain laughable: on the Facebook event board of the Yearly Kos Convention, Wes Clark and Bill Richardson (who apparently have Facebook accounts) have written on the wall; to avoid sounding excessively snarky, a fairly prominent politician who will remain anonymous wrote a fairly formal message on the wall of the YearlyKos group about looking forward to the coming year's conference -- apparently he didn't get the memo that proper communication on Facebook requires speaking in a rapid succession of "lols's," "lmao's," and "xoxo's". Both Gloria Steinem and the late Betty Friedan have Facebook accounts and according to a friend's "Newsfeed" (a stalker-esque list of what one's friends have been up to), Friedan was recently recruited for the Hillary Clinton cause, even though Friedan has been dead for over a year.
When Facebook users protested Facebook's decision to make accounts available to anyone (as opposed to college students who were required to register with a university e-mail address), the distaste was mostly based in the possibility of parents, employers, thirtysomethings who wish they were still in college, and skeevy old men having access to material that was previously understood to be confidential in the college student realm. However, I don't think anyone anticipated that their elected officials would soon have Facebook accounts (who may or may not be skeevy old men, as well).
Let's recognize Facebook for what it is: one of the best vehicles of procrastination since LOLCats.com and the best way to find out in a matter of minutes what your friend did on Friday night, and if she went out, what she was wearing, what she drank, who she made out with, and whether it was "Omgggg... sooo much funnnn! XOXOXO!"
So, Hillary Clinton, I will vote for you and donate money (or, in Facebook speak, $$$) to your campaign, but you can't be my Facebook friend.