The New York Times has finally decided to dip their toe into the ever expanding ocean of social networking with their new Facebook application, “New York Times News Quiz.”

The New York Times News Quiz asks users five quick questions each weekday on the latest news to test your knowledge of what’s happening in the world.

Once completed, the application will churn-out your “Times IQ” allowing you to compete with your friends and the Facebook community to see who’s most plugged in.

Finally, a Facebook Application built to inform & educate that is actually entertaining enough to use everyday.

Since the advent of Facebook, social networking has become an essential part of the college experience. If you’re looking for a local shindig to attend, ogling that girl in your class you’ve never officially “met” or want to browse through pictures of your very own drunken antics, all you had to do was log in without fear of reprisal. Unfortunately, times have changed.

In late 2006, Facebook decided against being a social network simply for college students, and opened up the network to the public. Suddenly parents, teachers, bosses and random kids off the grid could learn all about your personal life with the click of a mouse. Social networking on Facebook suddenly turned sour, riddled with problems stemming from letting non-students in. But all that’s about to change with Hugh Hefner’s social network, Playboy U. Read more

MySpace, there you go again, harming our poor, young, impressionable youth with your incessant spamming (thanks for the ads!) and providing an oasis for rapists and murderers.

The idea of a social networking website has its merits - socializing and, uh, networking - but when do the harmless aspects of sites like MySpace, Facebook and Friendster (Friendster is still around, right?) become harmful? They become dangerous the moment sexual predators and homicidal maniacs are allowed access to these infinite portals of possibility, places where even the most studied social networker can get duped into life-threatening situations.

Stopping sickos is as easy as shutting these sites down, meaning not easy at all. Read more

I graduate in a couple weeks (yup, I needed an extra semester to get the job done). Yes, I have come to terms with this and my emotional breakdowns have decreased to only once a week. Instead of wistfully reminiscing about each of my crazy college years and dispensing advice, I am now starting to look to the future as a mature adult…or something like that.

Facebook has been one topic of discussion lately for my graduating peers, and I still have not reached any conclusion yet. After college, is it considered weird to still be on Facebook all the time? Should I switch to a more grown-up social networking site? Not that I know of any certain ones that exist, but it seems like the word, Facebook, equals college in many minds.

Would creating a MySpace account take care of this issue? For some reason, MySpace makes me think of creepy old men stalking the profiles of thirteen year old girls.

When I really think about deactivating my precious Facebook account in hopes of gaining a real life, my heart starts to race and I get nervous that I will lose touch with all of my 508 “friends.”

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