Segueing to Chickering and Reisser’s next vector, “Developing mature interpersonal relationships” is quite a logical step for students to make as they move into adulthood. Whereas students in high school or recently removed might have had extremely limited exposure to diverse populations, the college environment readily presents a great deal of new types of people to the student to grow to know and understand. Through the exercise of these new friends and companions, a student is able to decide with whom he is going to build long-lasting relationships. The advent of Facebook allows for students to more closely examine the profiles of their friends and groups to determine with whom they will be more compatible in the long-term, mature level.

Facebook’s impact on students holds true in one final vector of Chickering and Reisser’s theory “Establishing identity.” While one could argue the development of student identities takes place during the creation of a profile, the development of the students’ true identity is something that a profile is likely dependent upon. A student’s Facebook profile will not stay the same throughout the duration of a student’s career, but instead grows and changes with the student as they move along a path of self-discovery. It is through the assimilation of friends, relationships, activities, experiences, education and other factors that a student truly defines a sense of self that can be reflected both corporally and digitally. It is in this vector, among others, that the cyclical pattern of Chickering and Reisser’s developmental process stumbles. As most of the vectors concern processes that are ongoing throughout a student’s collegiate or university career and beyond, the development of identity is itself an ongoing, likely never-ending process students will not cease until some point of complete self-actualization.