Coping for First-Year Students on Facebook

I decided to look beyond the fanastic events that can cause users of Facebook to create at deeper level of connection. After finishing my simple analysis of the Virginia Tech shooting, I decided to look at another event that would cause a great deal of stress to students, their first year at college I decided to persue this as my theme for my dissertation as it seems to be a common experience among incoming freshmen to feel unsure about their surroundings and, to borrow a phrase, that they are in a foreign social fabric. Facebook provides incoming freshmen as great opportunity to explore the campus virtually, connect with people on campus and get a feel for the social enviroment on campus. A student can conduct themselves through the social setting of Facebook without the fear of face-to-face rejection and all from the comfort of home. It was this line of thinking that piqued my interest in how incoming freshman use Facebook to cope with their first year of college.