On-line Scouting For Room-mates Using Facebook

There's a new way of finding your 'roomie' and it's a click away: most new university students in the US who are about to embark on university campus life are doing what anyone who is about to enter university would do these days -and that's use Facebook to check out online who they will be sharing their room; it is called online scouting for room-mates. The judgments students make based on what they see are dramatically changing the time-honoured university practice of learning to live with a stranger for a year.

Many educational institutions see assigned roommates as a chance for students to learn to get along with different types of people as they're forced to negotiate everything from who gets the top bunk to varying ideas about politics and religion. As a result many student deans and admissions officers view online roommate screening as a threat to all this. However, at the same time in the US parents have been calling to complain to colleges and universities, often demanding to change their children's roommates based on information discovered online, and it is this that's forcing many universities to rethink their approach to housing for a generation that uses social media and which is so integral to student life. Universities need to get engaged with social media.

Facebook's application called RoomBug is a tailor matching service, enabling on-campus residents to match and connect with others seeking roommates. Letting them assess each other's neatness, sleep patterns and other co-living essentials, as well as general interests. Students who find a suitable match can then request to room together. RoomBug is   integrated with Facebook, allowing students to use their Facebook data instead of having to fill out new profiles. Roombug is currently active at the Univeristy of Florida; Emory University, Atlanta; Temple University, Philadelphia; Wichita State University, Kansas and William Paterson University, New Jersey. Robert Castellucci, co-founder of RoomBug says, "Since students are checking out their assigned roommates on Facebook anyway and often not liking what they see it makes sense for colleges to use Facebook as a tool. While diversity is important, it doesn't always work if it's forced. I personally want my home where I live day-to-day to be my sanctuary."

Interestingly, according to a study published this year in the journal Psychological Science, how students represent themselves online gives an accurate portrait of what they're really like. The study looked at 236 college-aged people's Facebook profiles and used five personality dimensions to compare how individuals identified themselves, how four of their friends identified them, and how ten researchers identified them based on their profiles.

However, still, using Facebook doesn't necessarily lead to more successful roommate matches, since what people think they want in a roommate is often not what ends up making them happiest, says Sam Gosling,  psychology professor at the University of Texas and one clash over who decides what goes where!

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