Facebook Addiction: Are You Facebook Official?

The following diary is not for any particular day. Its just a summary of how many of my days went during my first year at college. This diary chronicles the addiction I like many of my collegiate brothers and sisters live with everyday, FACEBOOK. Millions of college students live with this addiction day to day, I being one of them.

(Image credit: eureekaswindow)

8:00 am
I wake up hit snooze on my alarm. 15 minutes later I pull myself out of bed and stumble over to my desk, open my mac book and open safari. Skip the news, go straight to Facebook. Who knows? In the past 6 hours that I was asleep someone may have written on my wall, tagged a photo of me, requested my friendship, or something juicy may have happened to one of my friends (news feed will be sure to tell me).

8:45 am

I have bathed, dressed, maybe eaten (depends on if I have any more Nutrigrain bars). But I am back on Facebook before I head off to class. Just in case someone had an eventful morning, I need to know.

9:00 am

I have walked up the hill to my first class. I’m waiting outside my classroom with my iPod playing and computer on my lap. Still clicking through mine and other’s profiles trying to catch a glimpse of what new could be going on in their lives. By this time what my news feed is showing is stuff I’ve already seen at least 3 times new relationships, new photos, wall post, same ole’ stuff. I move on to other websites to fill my time for the next 5 minutes until class starts.

1:30 pm

I am out of class and heading to grab some food - by now you get the point.

I am a student living with Facebook addiction. I have admitted I have on a problem and I am on the first step to recovery. But do I want to recover? Facebook has become a value tool in socializing now for many young people. It will never come close to the personal aspect of a face to face talk or for those who are living far away from you a telephone call, but it has made it extremely easy to keep up with them without actually keeping up with them.

I can see how my friends are doing by their status update, if a friend is currently listed a “never been happier” I can assume things or going well. If their status is something along the lines of “… is two steps away from giving up” I may want to give them a call. It’s like knowing exactly what mood your friend is even when you’re not around them.

Facebook also lets you keep up with people who you normally wouldn’t keep up with. Those acquaintances whom if you saw them on the street you would say hi but then have nothing to talk about. With Facebook you will have at least a slight idea of what’s going on in their lives just because of what has been in your mini feed concerning said person.

The world of dating has also been infiltrated by Facebook. You know your friend “Chris” is interested in a girl in his economics class and they have been on a few dates. Well they are not an official couple until its “Facebook official.” Facebook official is something reserved for only the most serious relationships you don’t list yourself as in a relationship with someone on Facebook unless you plan on (or at least are going to try to be) exclusively with the other person. Because once you are linked on Facebook it definitely is serious.

The Facebook addiction is more of an informational addiction its just that Facebook provides that information in an easy way. It keeps things organized and easy to find out. Also the communication aspect of it (wall posts and Facebook chat) gives people the impression of actual communication almost in the sense of actual face to face contact, because you Facebook profile is basically your Internet self.