Biochemistry freshman Jason Askew begins by tirelessly searching through Internet groups. After finding one that has several attractive girls, he writes to each of them by copying and pasting an e-mail that begins with, "I want to meet a nice girl, and I came across your profile."
He ends the message by trying his best to include a witty remark. But he's not the type of guy to come up with witty remarks, so he simply ends the message with, "insert witty remark here" and clicks send. He compulsively checks his inbox until one of the countless girls responds that she is interested in meeting a nice guy.
In today's technological age, hooking up has become as easy as the click of a mouse. And a popular new online directory for college students and alumni, www.thefacebook.com, has become an online expressway to meet people for random sex without the frills of a relationship.
After signing up for the database using a college e-mail address, users create profiles, which can contain the user's major, year, location and contact information. It can also include interests, clubs, favorite books, movies and music, as well as room for favorite quotes, relationship status and what the user is hoping to get out of Thefacebook, whether it be friendship, dating, a relationship, random play or "whatever I can get."
With more than 1 million students from 295 schools, Thefacebook allows users to scan through as many profiles as they choose, so they weed out those who do not interest them and contact those who do.
Askew says he uses Thefacebook to hook up with girls, and although that was not his original intention in joining the database, he says meeting them online is less of a challenge.
"It's easier to meet and talk to new people through Thefacebook," he says. "There isn't the chance of face-to-face rejection."
One of the most popular aspects of Thefacebook is the multitude of groups the members can join or create. Current groups include "Beer," "UofA Sucks," "Students Against the Policies of Michael Crow," "The Whataburger Regulars," 'Gots Junk In Da Trunk," "ASU Students Against Boring Friday Nights" and the "Casual Sex Club."
"People are in groups that they are interested in," says broadcast journalism junior Christopher Daniels. "It's kind of like a place to say your fetishes without actually having to say them out loud."
Daniels says he joined the database in November after hearing his friends talk about how fun it is to use. Like Askew, Daniels says he quickly found the directory to be an easy way to meet girls.
Thefacebook co-founder Chris Hughes says he and Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg started the directory in the winter of 2003 to connect students and alumni across the country.
"He [Zuckerberg] wanted to combine an idea for a universal online database with an interactive social networking interface," says Hughes. "It was an extension of the traditional college facebooks with terrible freshman photographs."
It took a few weeks and several late-night conversations with the four other founders of Thefacebook before the database was released to Harvard students, says Hughes. Since then, the directory has grown to a membership of more than 1 million.
Hughes says while Thefacebook was not intentionally made to make hooking up easier, the idea did cross the founders' minds during the creation process.
"If someone wants to use Thefacebook for a random hook-up, then that's cool. That's what the category [random play] is there for," he says.
Daniels, the journalism student, says he finds Thefacebook appealing for random hook-ups because it gives information that is necessary without all of the small talk that takes place when usually meeting someone new.
"One of the benefits of Thefacebook is the interests section. Here you can see everyone else's desires and availability," he says. "I know I wouldn't want to hit on someone that is taken."
While random hook-ups through Thefacebook continue to gain popularity, most members shy away from the practice.
"It is a way to hook up with someone, I suppose," says psychology freshman Amy Johnson. "But it's a pretty superficial way to meet someone.
"Meeting someone through Thefacebook is an easy cop-out. But society is OK with it, or else it wouldn't be so popular."
Reach the reporter at kristi.eaton@asu.edu.
