Never Been Kissed and other harlequin movies romanticize the idea of courting.  This, combined with societal pressures to form relationships with the opposite sex, creates the idea of a couple status quo.  I'm no hater of girlfriends and boyfriends, but too many young people today are compelled to be in a relationship in order to feel "normal" - a word with such vague and boundless limits that it really should be eliminated as an adjective.  Humans are naturally sociable creatures.  We've all felt the urge to find a connection with other people. Too often, people play leap frog with their significant others. 

College students today jump from one individual to the next, making meaningless connections that do not make relationships.  Facebook, the student database that is more encompassing than the university's database, is a tool for curious cats and those individuals that are "looking." Looking for what, you ask?  That's the million dollar question.  Recently, a friend of mine was "Facebooked" by a complete stranger who was perusing the Facebook database.  The stranger left her a message asking about her because he was intrigued by her profile. In other words, the creep has the hots for her.  This case isn't isolated.  Other female UT students have confessed to having been approached by guys on Facebook.  Word to the wise, gentlemen: there are no correct cyber pick-up lines.

Are desperate males using Facebook as an online dating database?  If so, females on Facebook are providing a backstage pass to their private lives complete with pictures.  This also raises the bigger topic of online dating in general. Should organizations such as eHarmony exist?  The aspiration to find your soul mate is not the issue, the online meeting of strangers is where the line of ethics begin to blur.  No amount of arguing can replace the simple, genuine meeting of two random people in person.  There is a chemistry between individuals when they first meet that can't be recreated through the World Wide Web.

The main attraction of databases such as Facebook, MySpace, and online dating services is their immediate ability to increase the pool of potential suitors exponentially.  The internet is a spiderweb of connections that can be just as tangly and sticky to remove oneself from once enmeshed, like a fly that's been caught.  If it's a question of quantity versus quality, we all know that quality will win. 

Therefore, Facebook and MySpace should refrain from joining the league of online dating services and remain a social network.  It's the twentieth century, most females are empowered and don't want to be objectified.  The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  The way to a woman's heart is not through text messages and wall posts, but through the turtle-paced process of getting to know her as an individual.