So I've just been seriously thinking about this topic lately. Is Facebook our new anti-drug? I've seen a numerous amount of people who are completely addicted to it, and that does indeed include my own self. Once we log onto that magical website we find it near-impossible to sign off of it. There are not a lot of people that I know who do not check this site more than one or two times a day! One of the weirdest things about this is that my mother has a Facebook and she is, more often than not, on it much longer than I am!
I think things are pretty serious when your own mother is addicted to a website more than you are...especially when her and her generation were not brought up on the Internet! So what is causing us such a fascination to this site!?! Is it something in our head?? Are we just being lazy and attempting to do nothing but sit on our computer chairs all day?
For those who are completely clueless (or maybe, in this case, very LUCKY) and do not know what Facebook is, I'll explain it to you...
Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to communicate with friends. It allows you to upload pictures of yourself and view pictures of others you are friends with. It also enables you to update a "status" whenever you want, where you can choose to talk about what you're doing, write song lyrics, put funny jokes, promote something, and so much more! And on top of YOUR status, you are able to view all of your FRIEND'S statuses. Therefore, you all should know what everyone is doing exactly when they're doing it. How cool is that?...or Creepy? I can't tell. Haha. On top of these awesome features, you can join fan pages (that people create and they usually are one line sentences that describe something you feel or a way you think that you never thought anybody else did or would). Along with this you have groups where people pick a topic for the group and invite friends to join it. You can message, comment, STALK, and so much more on this site. Need to look up an old friend from many moons ago? No problem! Search 'em on Facebook, and more than likely you'll find them. Soon you'll be talking like old friends again. Facebook can also be a greaaaaaaaaat way to promote businesses, songs, and even bands! So, you're probably thinking...."Why is Facebook bad again??" Well, I'll tell you....
First, I'd like to share a link with you from another blogger I found while Googling. She talks about her Facebook addiction problem as well. She even mentions that Pope Benedict XVI said that Facebook can really isolate people from actually interacting with those around them, rather than promoting socialness. However, the best part of the article was her list of signs that you are addicted to Facebook. I can relate to many of them, although some I don't know the feeling...however, I really would love to see what my list would be if I made one such as this...
We all are procrastinating...it needs to stop!!! We are attempting to find out details about other people's lives that we should not really care about. We need to stop updating our statuses, and just GET OUT THERE AND DO IT. Why do we think people care when we write "Going for a run" or "Going to grab some lunch". NOBODY CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING. If they did, they'd follow you on Twitter!!
How do we stop this problem?! Well, you could attempt to have a friend change your password as I've done in the past (in order to get homework done..LOL). You could also follow these steps listed on wikihow...I just googled this.
Basically it states that you must admit you have an addiction problem. Next, you need to truly consider why you're on Facebook to begin with. Are you staying in touch with friends and family? Are you trying to remember people's birthdays? You need to remember to be accomplishing THESE goals rather than just going on Facebook because you have nothing better to do (which is obviously not true.....).
Next, you should create a "Facebook Schedule". Write how many hours or how much time you think you need to "reach your goals". You should come up with a 'total maximum amount of time I plan to spend on Facebook each week' statistic. YOU CANNOT EXCEED THIS. If you do, then coming up with it was, well...useless.
The next thing you need to consider is how many more productive things could you be doing instead of being on Facebook!?! You could learn sign language, you could be studying for SATs, you could be changing the world! How much of life are you missing while you're clicking away on Facebook stalking people? Life's short.....Do you want to miss out on the best things merely because of a stupid website?
If you can't do the things above...well, it could be time to delete your Facebook. Yeah, I know it sounds like the end of the world! "But I can't...that's my social life" a lot of people would probably reply if asked to delete it. But really...is it your social life..or is it the thing that is standing in the way of your social life?? This is a serious question. If you find yourself on Facebook more than you find yourself going out with friends and such, then you really need to remember what's important!
There's another step but I'll let you read that if you want...but the last thing to do to cure a Facebook addiction would be to find ANOTHER 'healthy' addiction. Find a new hobby that will help you spend more time OFF Facebook rather than on it. Take up Yoga...Knitting...A sport....Volunteering....ANYTHING. You just need to keep yourself busy! Pretty soon you'll forget about your addiction because you're so busy actually LIVING.
While these steps sound pretty simple (maybe?) they really aren't. It will take A LOT of self-motivation to keep with your schedule and to stay off Facebook! However, it is possible. Maybe we'll realize that we can actually get more stuff done when we don't go on Facebook all of the time! I wonder how many things I could have accomplished much MUCH faster if I had not been on Facebook...it really makes me wonder...How many times I could be getting more sleep if I had not be on it to begin with.. Hmm... the questions that stump me.
So, what I'm truly saying is..... GET OFF FACEBOOK AND START LIVING. Facebook is (please forgive me for this but--) A BAD THING. It is evil! Do not listen to anybody...and if you don't have one, don't get one! Hahahahah. Yes, it's great to socialize with people...but in all honesty is it worth it???? CALL PEOPLE UP. You've got White Pages for a reason!
I think we gotta stop using Facebook as a helper in our procrastination. It has become the place where we go in order to NOT do work rather than the place we go after we DO our work...this is never good. It's time we remember that work comes before play if we want to succeed. I'm in High School, and Facebook is such an obstacle for me. I believe that I have become so addicted because of my work in the first place! Our attention-span has lowered in the last few years because of the Internet......"Is the Internet making Us Stupid?" YES!
Well, how do you guys feel about Facebook? Should we avoid it like the plague? Should we keep it?
Anyways, I'm off to check my FACEBOOK (no joke...but I will not stay on forever...). Signing off....
-Marissa
I think things are pretty serious when your own mother is addicted to a website more than you are...especially when her and her generation were not brought up on the Internet! So what is causing us such a fascination to this site!?! Is it something in our head?? Are we just being lazy and attempting to do nothing but sit on our computer chairs all day?
For those who are completely clueless (or maybe, in this case, very LUCKY) and do not know what Facebook is, I'll explain it to you...
Facebook is a social networking site that allows you to communicate with friends. It allows you to upload pictures of yourself and view pictures of others you are friends with. It also enables you to update a "status" whenever you want, where you can choose to talk about what you're doing, write song lyrics, put funny jokes, promote something, and so much more! And on top of YOUR status, you are able to view all of your FRIEND'S statuses. Therefore, you all should know what everyone is doing exactly when they're doing it. How cool is that?...or Creepy? I can't tell. Haha. On top of these awesome features, you can join fan pages (that people create and they usually are one line sentences that describe something you feel or a way you think that you never thought anybody else did or would). Along with this you have groups where people pick a topic for the group and invite friends to join it. You can message, comment, STALK, and so much more on this site. Need to look up an old friend from many moons ago? No problem! Search 'em on Facebook, and more than likely you'll find them. Soon you'll be talking like old friends again. Facebook can also be a greaaaaaaaaat way to promote businesses, songs, and even bands! So, you're probably thinking...."Why is Facebook bad again??" Well, I'll tell you....
First, I'd like to share a link with you from another blogger I found while Googling. She talks about her Facebook addiction problem as well. She even mentions that Pope Benedict XVI said that Facebook can really isolate people from actually interacting with those around them, rather than promoting socialness. However, the best part of the article was her list of signs that you are addicted to Facebook. I can relate to many of them, although some I don't know the feeling...however, I really would love to see what my list would be if I made one such as this...
I find this entire list to be quite hilarious! Although I cannot say that Facebook is my homepage, I do have it bookmarked on the top of my Internet bar. It has become such a habit that even when I am on the computer at school that it is the first thing I type in, and then it dawns on me that I cannot get on Facebook at school. It's that bad...I don't even notice I'm typing "Facebook.com" anymore. HURRY CALL THE MENTAL HOSPITAL! Let me attempt to create my own list of warning signs...10 warning signs that you may be addicted to Facebook
1. Facebook is your home page.
2. You update your status more than twice a day.
3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met.
4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone.
5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you
a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo.
b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile)
c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy!
6. You change your profile picture more than a 12-year=old girl.
7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article.
8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB.
9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going.
10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people.
Click to read her entire article.
- You are not doing your work (school or job related) because you find yourself on Facebook every two minutes.
- You have a group of friends that procrastinate with you.
- You are on Facebook, regardless if you are receiving notifications or talking to anybody, and you are continuously asking yourself why you are still on it....
- You know who else is on Facebook a lot because you see them on the homepage while you are on it.
- You can't go a half hour or less without checking to see if you have notifications.
- You rarely care if you have friend requests from people you don't know...this does not mean you accept them, but it means that you don't find it creepy anymore...
- You tell yourself that you will get work done, yet you find yourself on the Facebook homepage anyway.
- You type in Facebook.com automatically without thinking about it.
- Your friends tell you that you need a Facebook break..
- You don't remember what your life was like without Facebook.
- You attempt to delete many of your wall posts so that people do not know you are on all the time.
- You go "offline" on Facebook chat so that people don't know you are on all the time.
- You accept "fan pages" on a daily basis, and you stalk the homepage looking for more.
- You know whose going out with who because you've stalked everybody's profile.
- You've lost sleep because you've stayed up on it so late.
- You are constantly searching for old friends.
- You tell people that they need to GET a Facebook so that you can talk to them on it as well.
- You spend the entire day on Facebook.
- You forget to call or text people back because you are on Facebook.
- You know exactly where everybody is because of their statuses...you can also tell when people are mad, sad, etc. from these statuses.
- You've stalked someone's pictures that you barely talk to and even people you DO talk to.
- You know everyone's birthday.
We all are procrastinating...it needs to stop!!! We are attempting to find out details about other people's lives that we should not really care about. We need to stop updating our statuses, and just GET OUT THERE AND DO IT. Why do we think people care when we write "Going for a run" or "Going to grab some lunch". NOBODY CARES ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING. If they did, they'd follow you on Twitter!!
How do we stop this problem?! Well, you could attempt to have a friend change your password as I've done in the past (in order to get homework done..LOL). You could also follow these steps listed on wikihow...I just googled this.
Basically it states that you must admit you have an addiction problem. Next, you need to truly consider why you're on Facebook to begin with. Are you staying in touch with friends and family? Are you trying to remember people's birthdays? You need to remember to be accomplishing THESE goals rather than just going on Facebook because you have nothing better to do (which is obviously not true.....).
Next, you should create a "Facebook Schedule". Write how many hours or how much time you think you need to "reach your goals". You should come up with a 'total maximum amount of time I plan to spend on Facebook each week' statistic. YOU CANNOT EXCEED THIS. If you do, then coming up with it was, well...useless.
The next thing you need to consider is how many more productive things could you be doing instead of being on Facebook!?! You could learn sign language, you could be studying for SATs, you could be changing the world! How much of life are you missing while you're clicking away on Facebook stalking people? Life's short.....Do you want to miss out on the best things merely because of a stupid website?
If you can't do the things above...well, it could be time to delete your Facebook. Yeah, I know it sounds like the end of the world! "But I can't...that's my social life" a lot of people would probably reply if asked to delete it. But really...is it your social life..or is it the thing that is standing in the way of your social life?? This is a serious question. If you find yourself on Facebook more than you find yourself going out with friends and such, then you really need to remember what's important!
There's another step but I'll let you read that if you want...but the last thing to do to cure a Facebook addiction would be to find ANOTHER 'healthy' addiction. Find a new hobby that will help you spend more time OFF Facebook rather than on it. Take up Yoga...Knitting...A sport....Volunteering....ANYTHING. You just need to keep yourself busy! Pretty soon you'll forget about your addiction because you're so busy actually LIVING.
While these steps sound pretty simple (maybe?) they really aren't. It will take A LOT of self-motivation to keep with your schedule and to stay off Facebook! However, it is possible. Maybe we'll realize that we can actually get more stuff done when we don't go on Facebook all of the time! I wonder how many things I could have accomplished much MUCH faster if I had not been on Facebook...it really makes me wonder...How many times I could be getting more sleep if I had not be on it to begin with.. Hmm... the questions that stump me.
So, what I'm truly saying is..... GET OFF FACEBOOK AND START LIVING. Facebook is (please forgive me for this but--) A BAD THING. It is evil! Do not listen to anybody...and if you don't have one, don't get one! Hahahahah. Yes, it's great to socialize with people...but in all honesty is it worth it???? CALL PEOPLE UP. You've got White Pages for a reason!
I think we gotta stop using Facebook as a helper in our procrastination. It has become the place where we go in order to NOT do work rather than the place we go after we DO our work...this is never good. It's time we remember that work comes before play if we want to succeed. I'm in High School, and Facebook is such an obstacle for me. I believe that I have become so addicted because of my work in the first place! Our attention-span has lowered in the last few years because of the Internet......"Is the Internet making Us Stupid?" YES!
Well, how do you guys feel about Facebook? Should we avoid it like the plague? Should we keep it?
Anyways, I'm off to check my FACEBOOK (no joke...but I will not stay on forever...). Signing off....
-Marissa
