The Facebook Dependency

It’s crazy to think that less than ten years ago, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook were not even invented yet. Many people nowadays wouldn’t know what to do without them, and yet five years ago most of us didn’t even have Facebook accounts.

Last Wednesday while talking to a friend through Facebook chat, I was kicked off of Facebook. At first I thought it was a fluke and I tried re-signing in, but I kept getting an error message. I quickly went over my last few days of activity in my head. Had I posted a provocative picture of myself or used profanities in a status? I didn’t think so, and then the most terrifying thought crossed my mind, what if I was…permanently kicked off of Facebook? Of course, not too many people are permanently removed from the site. People who even try to delete their accounts are only allowed to de-activate them. The thought of me being permanently banned from Facebook was a pretty scary concept, but should it really be? I was able to log-in to my account the next day no problem, but it made me think of my dependency to Facebook.

I recently moved to another state for the summer and Facebook is my easiest means of communication between my friends and I. Although I’m “old fashioned” when it comes to conversing with people because I prefer phone calls over texting and chatting, Facebook definitely makes communicating easier. Is it bad to love Facebook or spend hours chatting with people, updating your profile or playing games? I’m no psychology expert, but I feel if there’s a healthy balance between how much time you spend on a social networking site and how much time you spend out in the real world, then it seems to me that feeding your cows on Farmville could be considered an acceptable activity.

I do think one of the biggest differences Facebook is going to make is how it will change high school reunions. Ten years ago if you didn’t keep in touch with your high school buddies, you had no idea what they looked like or what they were doing until the big reunion. Now if you want to know what Billy Bunion is up to, you can just search for him and see for yourself. That seems like an interesting concept. So yes Facebook is definitely a time-consumer and many people relate to the term “Facebook addict,” but as long as it’s not occupying your entire existence and you’re not Facebook stalking everyone and their grandmother, I’d say Facebook is a particularly useful technology and I’m interested to see what the next platform of social networking will be.