Most of Michelle Bruder’s days are occupied with schoolwork and planning for her upcoming wedding. She would feed her pet parrot and bearded dragon before leaving her home and eat breakfast in her car while trying to make it to class or any appointments on time. Even though Bruder is constantly on the hustle, she still has time to help University of Central Florida students find friends on her blog.
“People say, ‘oh, if you want friends just join a club,’ but there are cliques already within some of those clubs,” said Bruder, a senior majoring in advertising and public relations.
Bruder’s blog, called Make Friends UCF, is dedicated to helping students who are having difficulty making new friends around campus. It is run on Tumblr, a microblogging platform and social networking website. Bruder said she wanted to do something about the number of students on the site saying how lonely they were at the university.
“I go into the UCF tag, and I see so many posts by students saying, ‘I have no friends, I have no friends,’” Bruder said.
Bruder’s idea of creating Make Friends UCF stemmed from another Tumblr blog called Hook Up UCF, which as the name suggests, helps students find relationships on campus. Bruder opened her blog at the beginning of the semester, but she said that she did not see much student activity for some time.
“I got nothing for almost three weeks; I started to think that nobody cared,” Bruder said. “But then suddenly I started getting five or six submissions a day.”
To find a friend on Make Friends UCF, students have to provide their major, age, what they like to do for fun and a short blurb about what their interests are. Students can either choose to be anonymous and pre-screen their potential friends, or if they already have a Tumblr account and are fine with using their usernames, a link will appear to that student’s blog. Bruder will then display submissions on the front page of the blog, and users can show interest in friendships by clicking a heart-shaped symbol below the post.
“It’s something that I’m interested in. I don’t have a lot of friends around campus, so it’s good to find a way to link up,” said Joy Allen, a junior majoring in legal studies.
A good number of students think that Bruder’s blog is inventive and that meeting new people via a website is a positive thing.
“That’s really cool,” said Kevin Strileckis, a junior double-majoring in English literature and computer science. “Sometimes you don’t know how to meet other people in the classroom.”
Bruder said that she is aware of the negative stereotypes of talking to people via the Internet and thinks that they should just be ignored.
“There is still a stigma, but the type of communication that you get online is different; it’s less superficial,” Bruder said.
Andrea Munsell, a sophomore majoring in biomedical sciences, said that students should not feel ashamed about finding a friend online.
“Everyone has their preferences,” Munsell said. “This is not high school where you’re surrounded by a small amount of people.”
Some students still remain uncertain over forming friendships virtually, but they are open to Bruder’s idea.
“I’d prefer making friends in the classroom, where there’s a face-to-face meeting, but I wouldn’t mind as long as it’s secure,” said Zahra Sattaur, a sophomore majoring in psychology.
Bruder’s last days at UCF are quickly approaching with graduation being not too far away, and since she is the only person who runs the blog, she does not have anyone to take over from her. But she does want Make Friends UCF to prosper as the school semesters go by.
“I’m considering giving it to another student after graduation,” Bruder said. “People seem to be benefitting from it, so I would like to see the blog continue to grow.”
Between homework, wedding planning, and now preparing for graduation, the juggling act in Bruder’s everyday life continues, but she makes sure she’s not too far away from a good Wi-Fi connection to help a fellow Knight make a friend or two.
“Something is always happening, especially in the Internet world,” she said. “I can’t sit still.”
By DeJanae Phillips
