I've been meaning to address something for quite some time, however, I can't help but feel a little hypocritcal when it comes to this particular topic. What's the topic I speak of? Internet addiction and more specifically, Facebook addiction. I find the whole thing extremely fascinating mainly because I have such a love/hate relationship with it myself.
There are times when Facebook is amusing and does indeed help me keep in touch and make plans with friends. But that's really where it stops. More often than not I find myself uncontrollably drawn to the website when I'd rather be doing something else. What is it? The urge to update my status which is absolutely insignificant? The desire to know exactly what an ex has been up to in the last month even though I want nothing to do with him in my real life? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, this obsession we have with Facebook. It's simply an off-shoot of a more deeply rooted problem: internet addiction in general.
People wonder how I can possibly live without having the internet at home. It's because if it's there, I'm going to go on it and I don't enjoy spending every waking moment online. Having access to it for the nine hours I'm at work is enough, believe me. And developing a dependence on the internet just feels a little disgusting to me. Think about it. It's not good to get physically upset by internet withdrawal. It's not good to freak out because you can't see whether or not anyone wrote on your Facebook wall in the last two hours. I just feel that people rely to heavily on the internet for things they really shouldn't rely on it for, i.e. social validation and mental masturbation.
So to avoid becoming a complete hypocrite, yours truly is going to take a bit of a hiatus from the devil's playground that is Facebook. I cannot help but feel a small weight lifted from my shoulders thinking how nice it'll be. I can pretend for a little while that I'm capable of functioning outside of an e-world. So please, if you need to get a hold of me, try the phone...or if you're really feeling crazy, ring my doorbell.
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For more exciting insights into this subject, check out a very cool article from the International Herald Tribune:
Meanwhile: Just one more, and I swear I quit
2 comments:
Oh man that article was bloody brilliant and captured the whole addition and attitude to a T. It's hilarious to remember how much I suffered on Live Journal from '01-'03...I was miserable on that badboy. When your value is measured by how many comments you have. Now it's gotten WAY more insane via myspace/facebook, but at least I already went through the wrath and now "know better". Maybe it helps being 27. I'm so out of the loop ;) In any case, good luck sobering up!!
I'm a bit over Myspace - but I haven't had a facebook as long as most people seeing as how I couldn't use it forever since I wasn't in school anymore when I found out about it.
Plus, now there's all this cool stuff on there - like dedicating songs to people, hahaha.
I suppose I'll get sick of it after awhile just like m'space.....
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