Facebook.com, the popular social website that began as a student-only network, is offering a chance for students to branch out into the world of political and social activism, and a surprising number have taken the call seriously.
Chris Keenum, a Harvard Law School graduate in Los Angeles, said he is optimistic about the flooding of messages he has received in response to a group he started called “Join to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”
“People who take interest in pro-social causes, regardless of their vocation, have profound effects on refocusing society on what’s really important,” he said, elaborating on his personal experiences with the disease.
“One of my best friends during our first year of law school came out of remission,” he said. “She had breast cancer two years before but thought it was gone after bouts of chemo and a year and a half of time.
“Those three weeks when the doctors were in the process of re-diagnosing her and developing a treatment plan were the hardest weeks of my life,” he continued. ‘Ever since then, I have been looking for a way to strike back at the disease. This group will be the first of my many attempts at winning the fight that the disease started.”
Through the group, which has more than 100,000 members, Keenum said he hopes to raise awareness and encourage donations to fight breast cancer.
“These tools allow information and therefore emotion to pass more fluidly through our community, and therefore are great organs for the dispersal of pro-social messages,” he said.
Christopher Davis, a University of North Alabama freshman, created an AIDS/HIV research Facebook group that had 23,033 members as of last night. Davis said he saw the issue surrounding HIV and AIDS is one that had been underrepresented on the Facebook community.
“In 2005 alone, there was an estimated death toll of 2.4 to 3.3 million in the world and between 33.4 and 46 million people are currently living with HIV,” he said.
Additionally, Davis said he is hoping to promote the Operation Get Tested tour through his group.
“Six HIV positive youth ages 19 to 26 will board a 45-foot, 12-person sleeper tour bus to travel to 33 different colleges across the U.S. to present a 90 minute forum about living with HIV,” he said.
Additionally, Facebook — along with MySpace — has groups specifically focused on political issues including those revolving around the 2006 political campaigns.
Groups that advocate issues such as immigration, same-sex marriage, conflicting sides on abortion and stem cell research are all represented on the website.
University of Kentucky student Matthew Colin Bailey created his Facebook group Government + Religion = Disaster to voice his own concerns.
“I was online at approximately midnight on the night that Facebook began the political campaign for the elections of 2006,” Bailey said. “Facebook is a great way to get the word out about what we, as a younger generation, stand for.”
Although the group has received wide support, Bailey said he is always sure to take the success with a grain of salt.
“People have different ideas about things, and they love to voice their opinions,” he said.
“How could I deny them the right to contest? It’s what this country was built on. So my name as the creator is not hidden, I enjoy the letters, keep them coming.”
Christian Witt, a University of North Dakota senior and creator of “Democrats in 2006,” agreed with Bailey’s about the importance of the voice of current collegiate voters.
“The message I want to send is that young people are capable of organizing themselves to make an influential change in the current American political system,” he said.
“Considering I am your typical ‘starving student’, I have little money to donate,” he said. “I rely heavily on alternative methods to advocate my cause, including starting ‘Democrats in 2006’ on Facebook, painting ‘Vote Democrat in 2006’ on the back windshield of my ’87 Honda Accord and word of mouth. Money helps, but so does free advertising.”
MySpace’s “Rock for Darfur” group has given students opportunities to reach out and help in an appealing way — concerts.
Ziggy Marley, Teddy Geiger and The Fray are among the performers who will play to raise awareness in concerts across the country.
“In its most ambitious humanitarian campaign to date, MySpace is enlisting the support of musicians and members like you to help the people of Darfur [by sending] a message to the world that the crisis can and must end now,” according to the site.
More than 50,000 MySpace members have joined the group.