LSMedia or Liverpool student media at liverpoolstudentmedia.com is a brand new website launched by the University of Liverpool's students to promote and support talented Liverpool student's creative written, visual or radio content.

 Picture the scene: you’re out, friends in tow, chugging copious amounts of alcohol and drinking in the atmosphere of Heebie Jeebies/Bumper/The Raz ( delete as applicable). You’re approached by the most beautiful boy/girl, in your intoxicated world and in a drunken boost of confidence, you begin the cat and mouse exchange of sexual innuendoes and flirtatious looks. Now, the difficult time comes; the exchange of the phone number. However instead of the fumble of finding your phone, they ask ‘Just give me your full name and I’ll add you on Facebook.’ Excuse me? Since when did Facebook become the new squirmy chat up line? True, the old classics, which are far too atrocious to even write down, turned many a girl’s stomach, but they were classics. Have those lines been mown down and murdered by the monster that is the social networking motor way? Or is the soon to be friend request an easy way out of an awkward conversation? 

I will, not so willingly, admit that after an introduction with a certain someone who catches my eye, I do search on Facebook and just have a cheeky look through his photos (friends, personal information, family history ... ). Is this just a shallow act of voyeurism or just preparation for what relationship may come to be? In truth, knowing a person’s ‘activities’ or ‘musical tastes’  due to the world wide web creates a foundation and rids many an awkward silence. But are those awkward butterflies what make a date memorable? When you create a real connection with another person, a whooping feeling in your stomach ensues and you cannot wait to see them again. But this fake connection would surely create fake emotions. And I’m positive that the tangled romantics of generations past, did not have such a facility, they just bonded without the use of checking a personal profile and they seemingly turned out fine. 

However, it seems that asking for said details could have a conflicting image. It appears that the interest in a Facebook friend request is a blase excuse to leave  an humiliating conversation. A ‘ get out of a sure to be a fail’ card, if you will. But once again, a flaw in the plan becomes painstakingly obvious, you will get added by the unsuspecting fool who took an interest in you. And now, should they pluck up the courage to write on your Wall, you’ll have to ‘forget’ to write back and the silly dance will continue until the awkwardness will mix with the raw emotion of being rejected. So all in all, good times for no one.  

On the other hand, should the Facebook add be with good intention and you do begin to Wall-to-Wall, then you become accustomed to keeping in touch in a way that is controlled and managed. It creates a false sense of intimacy and means that real conversation, should you ever meet up, feels like an assault, too close, too risky. Moreover, if the ‘conversation’ does evolve into something more advance, it appears that not only do the two of you know, but your 1000 other ‘friends’ do too. I’m positive that we can admit, through the utterly fantastic act of Facebook stalking,  that if two friends declare their relationship on Facebook, we’re all over it , absorbing this new piece of salacious gossip and even taking time to discuss it with friends. 

Now, although I heartily agree that Facebook is the hub of all student life, however, where is the need to take it into our love lives? Even to the point where who we go out with and how long for is broadcast across the web. I am in no means going to shun my beloved Facebook, but should a prospective love interest come my way, I will definitely shun him should he ask for my Facebook details.