| By By Billy Phillip Rwothungeyo ,
:: 28-06-2011
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“Are you on facebook?” asked an old schoolmate I bumped into early this year. I replied in the affirmative. “Ku-page ki (meaning what page)?” His question took me aback! I then proceeded to explain to him that people have accounts, not pages on facebook.
So, the primary school graduate, who I had last seen at the turn of the century, wanted to join the more than 250,000 Ugandans currently hooked onto the world’s most popular social networking site. And UCU students form a sizeable number of the facebook “worshippers”. When a UCU student loves something, they love for real! Facebook is no exception.
Thanks to the resource centre and the wireless internet spots on campus, facebook attests to Liverpool FC’s famous catch phrase, “You’ll never walk alone”.
One the hotspots, dining hall, the engine that powers many UCU students, is quite a scene, especially during “rush hour” when the people’s batteries are running really low. Well armed with laptops, we sit back and let the two Fs-facebook and food scramble for our attention. Anything that competes with food is phenomenal, to say the least. One gallop of rice and beans equals a status update (Ha ha). Many times, the competition (between facebook and food) takes place under the gaze of notices barring people from using laptops during meal times! Others prefer the serenity of Nkoyoyo hall, Maari and Kivengere lecture blocks.
For those who don’t have the luxury of owning a laptop, we painfully have to wait for the dreary hours to drag on until supper time. Within record time, we are winding the marathon with our food. Then it is all helter skelter to the resource center. It seems the staff at the ICT centre tried to block facebook, but to little success. Somehow, some quick witted chaps knew how to bring the networking site to their desktops. Well to go! Those with phones other than the “K-series”-(Kabiriti, Kataala, Kati-kiti family) keep on checking feeds virtually after every minute, be it in lecture rooms or the toilets!
What exactly do we do on facebook? Why do we love it so much? Why should someone be rushed to Allan Galpin, only for them to be diagonised with “facebook fever”? (I know a certain someone who falls sick when they take three days without logging onto facebook). Even among the facebook family members, some people stand out from the rest of the park. X has 1000 friends while Y has only a handful. For this reason, others feel freer to post their photos for the world to see. Then in comes the comments that besiege the photos, especially those of the nice looking daughters of Eve. Then all of a sudden, couples take their “private” life into the public, bickering for whoever cares to notice. What about the in-box? Facebook! Sheer madness!
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Uganda Christian University's community newspaper
Me & My God 
:: Uganda Christian University 2008