In an attempt to seem “hip and fresh,” Stanford has created a new social networking site for students which they are modeling after Coursework, the online course management system.
“Like every other business and organization even remotely connected to young people, we wanted to get in on the social networking scene,” said Director of University Communications Stephen Roberts. “And we thought, ‘What better way to do that than to imitate one of Stanford’s most widely-used websites?’”
The website will feature tabs along the top of the homepage that display the profiles of the user’s four favorite friends, as well as a chat link in a small, nondescript “Forums” tab along the side. Chat messages will not be displayed chronologically and will take an average of eight minutes to load.
Other features include having to click an average of 17 links to find what you were looking for originally, a poorly designed calendar, and a beige and hospital-room white color scheme.
“I’m a little worried that the site will get to be a distraction to my studies,” said Jennie Fallon ’14. “I waste so much time on Coursework already for academic reasons and now could spend hours on there for social ones as well. But I do like sharing PDFs and Microsoft Word documents with my friends so we’ll see.”
