10 comments

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  Mike Smith

  1 year ago

  I have to disagree. During term time there are more events going on therefore more pictures being uploaded. Same applies for relationship statuses etc. People will be more likely to spend time on Facebook looking at these things.
  
  Also during term time people are constantly looking for a way out of doing work. I know I am! Therefore people use it more during term time.
  
  While these are just possible reasons, my personal experience reflects them. Most of my Uni friends who are heavy facebook users are using it far less over the summer break.
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  Zvi Band

  1 year ago

  In terms of Facebook usage - no, nothing will change. It used to be when Facebook was college-only, there would be a spike at the beginning of the year when the incoming freshmen would first be able to use it.
  
  In terms of applications, however, we'll hopefully see a rise of applications that have a real social utility, and there the advantage of the Facebook platform will be proven. So, while "Top Friends" may not get a boost in traffic, note-sharing and course-related applications will **hopefully** see an incredible amount of usage, especially after Facebook itself announced it would de-activate it's own Courses module in favor of third-party applications. If applications that could really harness the power of social networking and provide an actual advantage to its users prove successful, that will validate social networking as a whole. Otherwise, we'll see...
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  Paul Malin

  1 year ago

  biggest thing will be new friend connections
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  Kevin Guidry

  1 year ago

  Nick,
  
  You state that "When college students are at home, Facebook is one of their main forms of communication." Can you please point me to some research that supports that assertion? All of the research of which I am aware related to this topic ("How often do you log in?") was either conducted during the academic year when many students, particularly younger students, are likely to live on-campus or is old enough that I don't quite trust the numbers to be accurate anymore.
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  Nick O'Neill

  1 year ago

  Hi Kevin,
  
  That information was based on my own experience. I also see my other friends that are still in college use Facebook throughout the summer as a communication tool. Much of this communication has been done through the newsfeed via photos that my friends upload. I can see where they went on vacation, etc. Additionally we see which applications we're adding or removing. Do you mind posting the link to the research you are referring to?
  
  Best regards,
  Nick
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  Teresa Valdez Klein

  1 year ago

  I agree with you, Nick. But how will we ever know. Is Facebook going to make results public? Will individual application owners?
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  Kevin Guidry

  1 year ago

  Nick,
  
  Some of the research with which I am familiar is in my online bibliography at http://mistakengoal.com/wikindx3/index.php?acti.... I'm sure there are other articles and useful materials that I haven't yet added to my bibliography, discovered, or have forgotten to tag with "Facebook" but it's a good start.
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  Jill

  1 year ago

  As a parent of a college student and a grad student, if they are any indication, they logged on as much during the summer as during the school year. It was how the grad student gathered information about what to expect in a completely different state and it was how the undergraduate kept up with his friends while away from home on a summer job. Facebook is most certainly a communication platform for that generation. If they were going to adopt an application over the past four to six weeks, they already added it to their profiles.
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  Daryn Haynes

  1 year ago

  I think Ihave to disagree with you on this one Nick. Based on my personal experience with Facebook (I've been on it since May 2004) their is a huge boost of traffic once school starts. The main reason for this is that there is a lot more going on: people are meeting new people, going to parties, events, etc. which gives users more reason to check Facebook periodically everyday. I go to a fairly large university and have a decent amount of friends and if I were to check my news feed right now there is basically nothing on it except for a couple of photos from vacations. I'm not sure exactly how big the boost of traffic will be, but there definitely will be one.
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  jason

  1 year ago

  very interesting take....you could very well be right....i like how you're putting yourself out there on this...
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