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?-?-2008
Opinion
Posted on April 3, 2008 12:00 AM

Facebook gives insight into peer preferences

Working as a delivery driver in State College is tough business: dealing with drunks on Calder Way, having to park on Beaver Avenue any time after 11 p.m., walking over landfills of trash in the Meridian III (sometimes II, but never I) and, my personal favorite, delivering in the snow and getting tipped 19 cents.

Enjoy that Buffalo chicken sandwich? I got some Bazooka Joe gum with your tip and the comic was awesome.

After a Saturday night of work, it's usually already turned into "morning" as I look at my cell phone and see it's 4:15 a.m. I'm never able to go right to sleep, so I end up watching TV or going to my favorite timekiller: Facebook.com.

After the usual process of rejecting Zombie invitations and spaghetti benefit dinner invitations and realizing that "I need your numbers" groups are just a convenient way to weed annoying people out of your life, I suddenly get an idea. I decide to check out that link I rarely click on: "Network."

As I scroll through the wall of comments/advice on how to get free iPhones, I see an interesting feature. Apparently Penn State's network has statistics, a breakdown of our top music, top TV, top movies, etc. Four of the lists particularly grabbed my attention.

Top Interests: Surprisingly enough, music takes the No. 1 spot, while football takes a seat at No. 6. I started to wonder why State College's music scene suffers if more students prefer music than football. Then I remember that this town is responsible for Nickelback selling out the Bryce Jordan Center and I move on.

Top Music: Luckily, Nickelback's presence is nowhere to be found on this list. However, the Fray does hold a spot at No. 9 and Fall Out Boy at No. 10, which is unsettling. More triflin' than that, however, is the fact that Jack Johnson holds the No. 2 spot while the Beatles are given an unjust No. 7. Jack Johnson over the Beatles? Really?

Top Books: Harry Potter mixed in with some high school English books mixed in with some trash by Dan Brown. What's most upsetting here is not the book selections, but the fact that this is the only top 10 list with only nine items.

Relationship Status: According to this network tracker, 34 percent of us are single and 27 percent are in a relationship. However, it's probably more once you count the other percent population that are "None Listed." See, that statistic actually just means those students are actually not coupled off or in a relationship but secretly want to end it and/or don't want other people knowing about it.

Political views: With all the political hustle and bustle in this town as of late, you'd think we'd have some staunch politico aficionados, but no -- 55 percent of students aren't listed. This one thing I will blame solely on branch campuses. Hey you, branchies, stop your apathy this instant. And start reading some Dan Brown while you're at it.

Rich Coleman is a music reporter for The Daily Collegian and a sophomore majoring in journalism. His e-mail address is rmc5074@psu.edu.

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