Collegiate Times

If you happen to look at the Facebook "friends list" of the average college student, a good 90 percent is made up of students met in class, at parties or through other college-related organizations. My extensive friends list however, is a different story. I essentially dedicated much of my first year of college to being a bad after-school special. You know how your parents always told you not to talk to strangers? Well, I?m that stranger, and my online friends list is made up primarily of people that I met directly off of numerous Facebook searches.

The most important action to take, if you so choose to go about meeting anyone offline, is to check out the online account of your future-friend. It is very vital that you look out for, what I like to call, the Facebook red flags.

For starters, a person?s profile photograph really says a lot about them. Here are a few of what I consider classic no-no?s, or indicators that he/she has absolutely little character or originality. A person is most likely living in the past if their picture features them in their Hogwarts style high school graduation robes, holding up a blue ribbon next to their award-winning pony or dressed in a nicely pressed white choir shirt singing with fellow 16-year-old vocalists. In addition to this nostalgic disgrace, if their photo shows them grinning proudly with a thumb up in the forefront of a wide variety of liquor containers, they may use alcohol as a social crutch. If a person is that proud of their alcohol collection past freshman year, watch out. If you still insist on meeting said person, go ahead and bring a flask to make it through the mind-numbing date.

Never overlook the "Interested In" ? followed by a sex preference section of a person?s profile. I made this fatal flaw in one of my earliest internet conquests, and after several weeks of e-flirting and Facebook messaging back and forth with my future soul-mate, we met in person. I made one of the classic girl mistakes of falling in love with a boy before I even knew who he was, what he really looked like and most importantly, his sexual orientation. I mistakenly ignored all of the questionable material on his Facebook account ? such as the featured photo album of him dressed as a woman wearing red rouge, or the oh so cute because he like totally has a great sense of humor Facebook group, "Gay Pride."

The music choices on someone?s Facebook are another great way to get to know them, without actually having to get to know them. If their list consists of every top 10 band currently shown on TRL, you may want to stay clear. Look for the person with less popular bands listed, but not someone who goes out of their way to look super-cool by listing every emo music group recently featured in the background of "The OC." Rogue Wave and Mars Volta are a yes; 50 Cent and Fall Out Boy are a no.

In addition to checking out the picture album and sexual orientation sections of someone?s profile, the guestbook wall is a great place to complete your investigatory work. If your internet interest has a wall full of "last night was great, ;)" and "I told you I?d call you!" he or she is probably a little, well, spread thin, to say the least. It?s no good to pursue someone who is already being pursed by several other people, especially since your competition has the one obvious advantage of being more than a virtual friend.

One last red flag minefield lies within the favorite book section in a profile. I truly lose respect for any person whose book interests say nothing but "anything by Dan Brown." To me, you might as well include "See Spot Run" on your pseudo-intellectual favorites list. Reading "The Da Vinci Code" to see what all the hype is about is one thing, but claiming it to be your favorite book when you haven?t read anything since your ninth grade summer reading list, is another. Other red flag entries in this section include, but are not limited to, "read ? who reads?" "Cosmopolitan" and "Paris Hilton?s Confession of an Heiress."

Now that you have all of these red flags to consider, go ahead and get to searching. Once you feel you are ready to message stalk this certain desired person, a meeting will soon ensue. As far as the actual meeting goes, well, that?s another story ?