One-hundred-and-thirty-one percent of University of Wisconsin students have an account on Facebook. At least, this is the number that comes up by dividing those on the UW-Madison Facebook network (54,355) by the number of students currently enrolled at the university (41,466). Clearly, many UW alumni have decided against cutting ties with their carefree college days. These grads excluded, a clear majority of UW students have registered with the social networking site, helping to propel Facebook to the fifth most-visited webpage in the United States, according to statistics from Alexa Internet, Inc. Given its extreme popularity, Facebook has become more than just a way to view old friends' drunken pictures and witty status updates. Facebook has spawned a culture not often outwardly recognized, with its own unwritten codes of conduct. Here I will attempt to delve into a few of the unexplored social outcomes Facebook has unleashed on campuses nationwide. Recognizing someone you've looked up on Facebook while passing them on the sidewalk or sitting next to them in a class is a surreal experience. Urban Dictionary offers up a term for this phenomenon, defining "the Facebook Effect," as "The feeling of déjà vu one often experiences upon meeting someone one has friended or Facebooked, but has never actually met in person." This raises many questions: Does this person somehow innately know that I've viewed half of their pictures? Have they similarly "stalked" me? Is that a flicker of recognition in their eyes, or just a blink? Should I offer a half-smile? The Facebook Effect is both amusing and awkward at once, a hybrid sensation unique to those who frequent social networking websites. There seems to be no correct way to deal with these run-ins; one can only take them in stride. "Relationship status" is far and away the most important part of a person's profile. A changed relationship status on the mini-Feed will almost guarantee a visit to that profile, in anticipation of a catastrophic breakup or an unforeseen engagement. The weight of one's relationship status was revealed to me the day I convinced my boyfriend that it would be funny to change our relationship status to "Married" and see if anyone reacted. Less than an hour later, I received an angry call from my boyfriend's sister. Upon seeing my changed relationship status, she assumed that we had broken up and almost started to cry. A lesson was learned: Facebook relationships are serious business. Similarly, the relationship status has the potential to put pressure on couples to stay together — if not "for the kids," then "for the hundreds of friends who will witness our statuses change." I know more than one person who, upon breaking up with a significant other, has hesitated to broadcast it to their Facebook networks, instead removing the relationship section from their profile altogether (which still causes the omniscient News feed to display "Jane Doe is no longer in a relationship") or forging a new "open relationship" with a close friend as a cover. It may seem ludicrous for someone to hesitate ending a relationship based on an Internet status, but the tiny broken heart with the exuberant announcement that "’Pam' and ‘Jim' have ended their relationship," and the flood of messages exclaiming "OMG! What happened? R u okay?" in a person's inbox are enough to make even the most resilient Facebooker think twice about hitting edit. With the decision to allow independent developers to create and instate their own Facebook "Applications," the company has received flak for flooding its minimalist interface with a bunch of useless crap. At present, there are more than 5,500 applications for Facebook users can install on their pages. However, I find the new influx of applications valuable: More than simply allowing users to buy each other "dirty gifts" or pet cute animated puppies, they help me to weed out exactly who on my friends list is an idiot, and who is not. To put it simply, those on my friends list with more than three glittery applications will not receive a repeat visit. There is much more to be pondered regarding the social effects of Facebook. What does the ratio between pictures tagged by a person and of a person imply? With privacy settings and locked profiles becoming more common, how will the Facebook Effect continue? How many rejected friend requests will it take for someone to realize that you don't, in fact, want to let them see your profile? And if Facebook ever includes a "Friends with Benefits" relationship tag, will people actually use it non-sarcastically? I leave these prompts open to debate — discuss them with friends, family, and Facebook-stalkees. The sooner the shady side of Facebook enters into the public discourse, the sooner we can all laugh at how seriously we are taking this "social networking" site. Katie Greenway is a sophomore majoring in journalism and communication arts. If you enjoy sending digital thongs, don't e-mail her at [email protected].