From CNN: Five clues that you are addicted to Facebook
One day recently, Cynthia Newton’s 12-year-old daughter asked her for help with homework, but Newton didn’t want to help her, because she was too busy on Facebook. So her daughter went upstairs to her room and sent an e-mail asking her for help, but Newton didn’t see the e-mail, because, well, she was too busy on Facebook.
Yes, it’s Facebook’s fault that she seems to have abandoned parenting.
I’ve been on Facebook for about 6 months now. It’s got some great timewasters (Poker, anyone?) and yes, it can be used as a tool for avoiding real life. But it’s also been a great way to reconnect with old friends – a wonderful friend I haven’t seen in near 20 years found me on Fb and it’s been terrific to be able to catch up with her. I honestly don’t know how we would have found each other had it not been for Facebook.
Sure, I doubt that anyone really has a desperate need to know what I’m doing at any given point in the day – but Facebook Mobile was a nice little sanity saver when I was stuck in AZ at Christmas. There’s a lot to be said for being able to toss out an “I’m losing my mind” status update and get some quick support from friends. (And comments that the mind had long since gone as well.) I like being able to know what my friends are up to and how they’re doing and to be able to toss them a quick note if they need bucking up.
Facebook is also much more interactive than a regular blog, so sure, it can consume some more time than other websites. (Also why my blog feeds into the Facebook notes – not everyone knows I have a blog.) It’s a great all-in-one place for thoughts, notes, pictures and whatnot.
But, if you’re “addicted to Facebook”, it’s not Facebook’s fault. If Facebook didn’t exist, people would find other ways to avoid real life – trust me, people avoided real life and real problems long before the internet existed. If you spend an ungodly amount of time doing anything, you need to take a quick step back and look at why you’re doing it.
This particular excerpt really bugged me:
“One of my clients met up with an old boyfriend on Facebook. They started spending hours and hours into the night talking to each other on Facebook. She made some really inappropriate comments about how unhappy she was in her marriage,” Pile said. “Her cousin saw the comments and told her parents, and the parents told the husband, and now they’re in the process of getting divorced.”
Guess what? Those two were going to get divorced eventually anyway. Using Facebook didn’t cause the divorce – it just brought the underlying problems in that particular relationship to light.
Sometimes, a little avoidance of the real world isn’t the worst thing in the world. But you can’t blame Facebook for building a killer app that enables you to do it. Suck it up and face your fears and address your issues.
Just be sure to update your status when you’ve conquered them – I’ll hit the “Like” button.
