The Facebook Addiction
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Anoma | Aug 24, 2009
When a kid is young he is usually engrossed in fairy tales told by his parents and grandparents. When he is a bit older, he is preoccupied with friends. As a teenager he begins fantasizing about girls and cars and when he is an adult and gets married and becomes fixated on his family. This was the regular pattern until a few years ago when the big “F” entered our reality and changed everything. It is a called Facebook and millions of people have since added the new “F” addiction to their list of “must-have” habits.
I am not against using Facebook. I believe it’s the best networking site (I am a Facebook user as well). But I am amazed to see the outrageous Facebook fad taking control of so many lives among people of all ages.
We all know that Facebook is meant for an age group of 13 years or over of age but many children under the stipulated age are signing up to be members with false information. There is the danger that these children could become victims of dangerous online adult predators, which is one of the biggest risks associated with social networking sites. These children wind up adding unknown people to their ‘friend-list’ leaving themselves open to cyber bullies or even worse, a parent’s worse nightmare – the pedophile.
Teenagers are among those most addicted to Facebook. Precious time which could be used for other constructive activities such as reading, playing sports, or learning new life-enhancement skills like meditation, aerobics and yoga is spent on Facebook. The site not only encourages teenagers to waste valuable time, but also leads them into the pit of peer pressure when they are compelled to participate in all kinds of silly contests such as “Who’s The Sweetest Person?” There are an alarming number of ‘post your photos competition’ which lure teens to post photos of themselves online. This is a welcome signal or green light for every pervert and child predator online.
This is a dangerous trend not only for teenagers but for Facebook users of every age who are not well-informed about the hazards of socialising online.
I have seen people going crazy about Facebook, making desperate efforts to increase their friend-list in order to ensure he/she has a more friends than other people. They choose to ignore the fact that most virtual ‘friends’ should never be trusted and can violate your privacy at the drop of a pin.
Ludicrous as it seems, there has been a new twist in the story these days as parents deliberately make up profiles on Facebook in order to check up on their kids (one would think that older people would have better things to do with their life than playing around on Facebook). The end result is that the whole family turns out to be on Facebook instead of spending quality time together.
Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is a great platform to express yourself by making up your own group, keeping in touch with friends and exploring other interests. However, one must remember that Facebook is just another means to enjoy life but not another means to live life.
By limiting yourself to Facebook, you lose out on a rich and exciting life of real possibilities beyond a social networking site.
So the next time you log on to Facebook with the intention of spending hours in useless socialising, pause a while and ask yourself, is there something more interesting, constructive and uplifting I could be doing with my time?
Filed Under: Miscellaneous
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Hello, I was passed this article by someone who likes to share their knowledge and resources to their near and dear. As much as I appreciate their generosity in sharing their knowledge, I would like to say No, thanks.
However, before that I have a point to make – to the author. I understand how much social networking sites have become a part and parcel of todays gen Xs’ life. However, I disagree with you that Facebook is the only menance. I am a FB user as well, and frankly, I find it very unfriendly for its users, and I am quite amused by how well ‘viral marketing’ seems to be doing well on FB.
However, saying that FB is the only demon in the darkness would be wrong, and as a writer and a publisher you must know this better than me. Before Fb came along, there were other sites as well.
Have you forgotten the time when Yahoo was a fad? Everyone went to local internet booths, and chatted with strangers?
The fact is that no matter what you do, when ppl start shifting their modes of life from the real world to a virtual world, its obvious that capturing the time and attention of the person will be vital.
Like when ppl started watching TV – now, TV producers have creatively ensured that their users are glued to one or the other TV show. And if its not a TV show that they are watching, and bombard them with the most creative ads!
The menace that you talk about lingers on these social sites, yes true. But i urge you to look closer home, behind an alley, when crossing the road, may be a stranger. And most times worst sometimes comes through families.
Have’nt you heard of fathers sexually abusing their own children? or mothers beating up their kids? Or families treating the child with affection that later is deprived for the child – only to make him crave for more of that what he has seen, and felt? Later the child becomes insecure – which reflects in all his future endeavors.
At times like these where is safe?
You talk about play grounds and things that children should be doing. Well, which child in this country, and many others like ours have freedom to walk down the road to that ‘park’ or ‘play ground?’
They stopped existing a few decades back, and were taken over by tramps and local miscreants who spend their lives smoking weed, or playing poker.
Where again may i ask you is safe, in a world so closed for children? And then again you say, Yoga, sports, aerobics, reading… I am not sure where you live, but in majority of India, Sport is played on the roads. Yoga, is considered a waste of time by their parents and peers, and is supposedly for the old.
Those who do think like you, have the money and the resources to spend time on such leisure activities. Cause such activities definitely come with a price.
In Hyderabad, for that matter of the 1000 schools, I can count on my finger tips how many have extensive play grounds. And what the guardians of the privileged few studying in such schools are paying for this.
Then again, I may ask, what is cheaper? Internet which is cheap and resourceful? Or a school which comes with a price bigger than most daily wagers lifetime supply of a ‘salary.’
This retort is not against the use, or the addiction of FB. I personally spend less than 4 minutes on this site everyday, that is a very small percentage of my time, considering I spend 18 hours on average online.
The fact is, when in times like these, where no where is safe, no where is comfort. Where those pruning eyes, and laws don’t let you breath – its only a matter of time, when a new seed finds its way.
A world away from this world is thus created. Its what we today proudly call the virtual world – and this is what has lead to the phenomenon called ‘Global Village.’
So what do we have to do to ensure our childrens Safety? Well, the answer is simple. Just what our ancestors did previously. Let them know clearly what they are getting into.
Children become adults faster these days, and so, after sometime, we need to understand that there is not much we can do. And all that matters is the connection you have with your child. Cause no matter what you do, children almost always find a workaround to get the thing that is kept far far far away from their reach.
FB definitely is not a culprit here, nor is orkut, or myspace.
The culprit is something bigger – like the society, and the people, and the values.
All the best with your facebooking!
I completely agree with you on this.Being a facebook user myself,I definitely realise that I sometimes waste hours chatting…n when nobody’s online,i tend to indulge into the stupid quizes available for timepass…But I feel that its not peer pressure that’s responsible for this.Children get involved in such activities for mere pleasure,that’s it…
Thanks for telling us that parents have accounts on facebook.I’ll have to pay more attention to my friend requests now…
which reminds me,i have sent you a friend request on facebook…accept it ASAP.
@Sam – You have a lot of good points about why there is FB addiction; I thinking there re some good routes of thought to explore to probably make a nice article – why not try that?
What you say is true – many things are going on around us and we are not in control of several of these things but end up blaming the tools nd the people and acting with prejudice.
Worthwhile exploring
In the meanwhile I need to poke somebody in FB
FB is like two pegs of whisky, we heard about alcoholics ,workoholics, now it’s FBholics.
Regards
i like d begnin of ur article …..d way u give connectin of d “F” in ou life…very creative i must say!!!
i have read ur articles b4 nd i wud like to say that u are a prolific writter n touch the issue with exactness… keep up the good work and th articles comming…. love to c more…..
fb is indeed a good way to keep in touch with friends but i hate fb ‘wannabees’ i get so pissed off with ppl taking stupid quizes like what is ur name in spanish; how low ur IQ is; wen r u gonna die; get married; or what kinda animal/tree/fruit or jerk u are…… i dont noe y u get these silly n stupid notifications…. every time u block one a newer n a more foolish one crops up……
Where there is addiction there is good money to be made both reinforcing and disabling it! Get to work.
I have to admit that when I read this, I didn’t see much that was new and it seemed trite. There seems to be a lot of comments like this on shows like Dr. Phil and in other areas of the web and media. One can make comments like this about so much in life. At all phases of life and technological advances, people get excited and concerned about change until another new thing comes about to grab our fancy. There is constant caveats about the new fascination and how it can be an addiction. Like with alcohol, you can’t blame the alcohol or whatever the item of addiction is, like FB. Some people will over-due just about anything. I was excited about FB and still use it, but it doesn’t take much focus – my crawling 10 month-old does. I’m sure there are a lot of people like me who use it for its benefits (like being able to keep up with friends easier and at least having their contact info in one place) and have enough discipline and maturity to not overdo it.
Pria
http://www.priaingrum.com