Anyone who has a basic knowledge of the history of Facebook (or if you watched The Social Network) know that the social media giant started out as a college-focused network. The goal was to let students connect with other students in their area. Now they’re sort of bringing back this aspect of their business with the introduction of Facebook Campus which will be integrated into the main app. This is also part of their efforts to bring teens back into the fold.
To be able to join Facebook Campus, you will need a school email address with a .edu extension. You need to create a Campus profile that will not be the same as your main profile. There is no separate app but you will be able to access it from a tab where the other sections like Watch, Dating, Gaming, News, etc. After you’ve set this up, you will be able to see Groups and Events that were created in and for your school and so you can connect with your fellow students that are near you.
Your feed from within this section will be a campus-only news feed where posts will be from classmates, groups, and events specific to your college. There is also a campus directory to make it easier to find fellow students that are in your area. There is also something called Campus Chats or real-time chat rooms that can be created for those within dorms, those who want to form clubs, and other groups they want to create.
Of course, a major concern about this would be the privacy and safety of the students that will be using the feature. Facebook says they built the product with those two at the core. Users will have control over who is able to see their profile and who will be able to interact with them. Hopefully, they will really be able to have a safe experience here as something like this may be prone to abuse from some nefarious elements.
Facebook Campus is rolling out in select colleges in the U.S. like Brown University, Georgia State University, John Hopkins University, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Pennsylvania, etc. Let’s see if this experiment will be successful in bringing back some of the teen demographic that they have lost over the years.