Michael Cowen, public relations sophomore, admits he uses the Web site thefacebook.com more than he should.

Nine months ago, Thefacebook.com started at Harvard as an online directory connecting students to a virtual, social network. Now, the Web site stretches across the nation from Stanford University in California to Ithaca College in New York.

Last week, 411 Loyola students joined Thefacebook.com as the campus entered the ranks of 171 universities and colleges connected through the site.

The content is provided on a voluntary basis – some students include phone numbers and their semester courses, but the given information is up to the user. Thefacebook.com’s features include personal profiles, space for a profile picture, user-created groups and even a search for people according to where they went to high school.

Based on user information, students can search for people who like the same movies, books and share other interests. For instance, a search for presidential candidates shows 100 Loyola users voted for Kerry, 25 for Bush and four for Nader.

Students connect to each other by making “friends,” which, following a request, can be accepted or rejected.

Cowen reconnected with friends he hadn’t talked to in two years. According to finance sophomore Jesus Garcia, it was a “nice surprise” to find a couple of his high school friends on Thefacebook.com.

Katie Jones, classical studies senior, said she checks Thefacebook.com once a day to see if she has any new friends.

“Every few minutes someone wants to be my friend,” Cowen said.

Stephanie Lyons, psychology sophomore, said she likes writing messages on her friends’ walls; user walls are similar to yearbook pages for peers’ comments, although not static.

“I just love (Thefacebook.com),” Lyons said. “It’s addictive.”

When visiting other users’ profiles, students also have the option of pokingthat person.

Jones described poking, “as a way to say, ‘I’m thinking about you. Are you thinking about me?'”

Cowen said he loved getting poked and poking others. So what happens when you poke someone? The person selected for poking gets a message saying he or she has been poked.

The site’s creators said it has no specific purpose; they thought it would be fun to have a feature that doesn’t do anything. In fact, Thefacebook.com itself was created “just for fun,” according to the About page.

Garcia described Thefacebook.com as a new kind of communication.

Sam Cabrera, an international business sophomore, said Thefacebook.com makes it easier to keep in touch with people he normally wouldn’t. He described its methods as a “better form of instant messaging,” although he’s not sure it will grow to be as widely used.

Cowen disagreed: “I don’t even use instant messenger today – who has time for that anymore? The new thing is facebook.”

But not everyone is enamored with Thefacebook.com.

“There is a better use of your time.” Karl Weis, political science senior, said. “The time you spend on Thefacebook.com is time you could spend drinking or talking to people in person.”

Jones initially thought Thefacebook.com would be pointless, but has changed her mind.

“Once Loyola picks up on (Thefacebook.com) more, it will be huge,” Jones said.

Savannah Brehmer can be reached at [email protected].