Facebook addiction threatens to overwhelm users

 It probably began with a Xanga or Live Journal account that was transferred over to Tom and his little website called MySpace. In the end, it evolved into the power of Facebook.
You have all heard of it and the majority of you use it. Yet, until a few years ago, the concepts of “tagging” or writing on a “wall” were usually associated with graffiti. “Poking” was the annoying physical interaction that people used to get your attention.
In the last few years since Facebook opened its digital doors to people outside of college, the networking site has grown tremendously in popularity. At the same time, there has been a growing concern of a possible addiction to the service. While people use it to stay in touch with old friends or family, its true purpose follows the same ideal of the postmodern era: we want information and we want it now.
 Not unlike celebrity gossip sites or news pages, Facebook fuels that constant curiosity to which we have become accustomed in our desire for the latest news, primarily gossip, via status updates or the “minifeed.” Because of this, people will spend hours watching “friends” post updates about their daily lives. This is especially unsettling when you realize that people you pass by in the hallway, people that you don’t even know very well, were notified the night before of your current break-up or looked at pictures from your last Big Bear trip.
 Technology does not help alleviate this addiction as we program our phones to ring as soon as a notification pops up or we receive several e-mails about being tagged in a picture. Professors on campus have begun to eliminate technology in the classroom in an attempt to avoid the constant distractions of Facebook that detract from their lectures.
 We have become so anxious to see if anyone has commented on a status or “liked” something that we posted, that we sometimes check out our profiles more than once an hour. Facebook has evolved into this recurring desire to see what other people are doing and what our peers think of us. There is something abnormal about people being preoccupied with their virtual selves; it could affect our true reality.
I admit that I check Facebook more than I should and it definitely is a distraction from other productive activities I could be doing. It is also true that computers are not going to go away. Neither will Facebook, though it does have to get to a point where it is crucial for us to separate ourselves through sheer willpower, recognizing its dangers.
Setting aside a certain time of the day when you check out Facebook for around 15 minutes could be helpful. Or, you could simply deactivate it for a week. Don’t worry, it won’t disappear forever. This might help us all on the road back to reality.