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Youths and Social Networking Obsession [analysis]Oct 14, 2011 (Daily Trust/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Facebook is one of the popular social networking services and websites launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students at the Havard University. The other co-founders of the social network which has millions of active users include Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. It is owned and operated privately by the Facebook Incorporated. As at July 2011 it is said that Facebook has more than 750 million active users. The number of facebook fans must have grown astronomically since then. Users may create personal profiles, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Facebook users must register before using the site. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other better. Facebook allows any user who declares he or she is at least 13 years old to become registered user of the website. Facebook no doubt is one of the social phenomena sweeping through the whole universe like wide fire, as millions of active users (mostly youngsters) hang on to their facebook pages for long hours chatting and sharing messages. Facebook is one of the most addictive phenomena to have swept the world! You may think you are a mere casual user, but denial is the hallmark of any form of addiction. With over 750 million active users on facebook , comes the attendant challenge of facebook addiction which is more prevalent among youngsters who hardly can live a day without facebooking. There seem to be an alarming rate of social networking obsession among youths today; a trend if not properly controlled could affect their academic, social and spiritual lives negatively. Many concerned parents have expressed grave concerns that they could hardly get the attention of their children and wards, as they seem to have been carried away by the fascinating 'world' of facebook. Some youths are such facebook-freak that they have now carved out for themselves, a world of fantasy and illusion far detached from reality. Youngsters who make use of facebook must know that their reputation is paramount while interacting on the social network. It is appalling to sometime see obscene pictures and vulgar posts capable of affecting the moral sensibilities of other users of the network. People who post such will only end up degrading their reputation in the eyes of their facebook friends and could even lose their friends. Establishing friendship on facebook is interesting but caution must be taken while sending or accepting friends' requests. For 21-year-old Erin, "I don't friend just anyone. That could be dangerous. I've had requests from old schoolmates to become their networking friends. But I have tried to avoid that particular crowd while in school; why would I want to be part of it now?" The point is that, facebook channel is so enthralling and deceptive such that a facebook user would hardly know when he or she has become addicted to it. How then does one know if he or she is a facebook addict? What are some of the signs or checklists that prompt you to know whether you are a facebook addict? Are there negative implications for being a facebook addict? Then, how do you overcome facebook addiction if you are already one? These are some of the questions this article seeks to explore. One of the earliest signs of facebook addiction is that of changing your profile picture over and over again. This is an indication that you are worrying too much about your image on facebook and hence, the constant change. Also, if you are fond of changing your status update more than once an hour, then you need to take a critical look at yourself if you have not become a facebook addict. If you are so obsessed with facebook that you try as much as possible to constantly access it through your mobile phone, then you equally need to have a word with yourself as well. One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the photos application, where users can upload albums and photos. If you see yourself always wanting to upload dozens of your photos on facebook every now and then, you have to watch out too. More so, you can use the following checklists suggested by Heidemarie Embrechts to ascertain whether you are a facebook addict or not. You're one of the few people who actually use facebook chat. When something exciting happens, you find yourself thinking about how you could use it as your facebook update of the hour. You have several facebook friends that you've never actually met in person. Your profile has so many applications on it that it takes several minutes to load. You start doing things so that you can later add them to your hobbies section. You only check your emails to see if you need to check facebook. Facebook stalking is no longer considered sketchy. You refer to facebook affectionately as FB. You take pictures for the sole reason of tagging them on facebook. The word "poke" is no longer considered something physical to you. Your dreams involve people writing messages on your wall. You find yourself getting mad at other people for not having a facebook account. How can you ever be friends? You start sending your friends facebook messages instead of posting on their walls so other people can't see just how much you go on. You add facebook to your quick links computer toolbar, then delete it telling yourself you're going to stop visiting facebook often enough to need it, then give up and add it again, then delete it... You tell people to facebook you if they want to meet up with you somewhere because you know you'll see their message a few minutes after it's posted. When someone writes on your wall, you purposely wait a few hours before replying to make it seem like you're not as addicted to facebook as you really are. You get upset when facebook is temporarily unavailable. Probably, the above checklists must have convicted you to be one of the facebook- addict 'culprits'. With Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia, Twitter, Myspace... the list is endless; millions of internet users are no doubt addicted to some extent. Governments in some part of the world are already complaining that much time wasting on the internet is costing their countries billions of dollars every year. Productivity at work is also said to be dwindling as most of the day is spent reading facebook walls or checking out favorite blogs. Can this additive behavior be beaten? Of course, yes. The following suggestions could be of help to you if you are a face addict; - Admit that you have a problem; there is no point trying to beat an addiction if you don't seriously believe you have one. - Write down exactly how much time you spend on each site; the reason it is important to know how long you have been on the sites is because, it gives you a solid measure of how bad your addiction is and the need to adjust. - Give yourself a set time of the day to visit facebook; we need to realize that spending time on these sites is not a bad thing. Instead of banning the site altogether, why not give yourself a set period of time to visit? For example, you might give yourself the first 20 minutes of the work day to check all your updates and then not log on for the rest of the day. Or you might decide that the last 30 minutes of work is facebook time as a reward for a long day of super productive work. - Turn off email notifications; Email notifications are like little red devils coming to sit on your shoulder and begging you to come back and visit Facebook. Turn off email reminders so you can get on with your work. - Meditate as soon as the thought arises; one of the most powerful ways to beat Facebook Syndrome is to look directly at the tempting thought as soon as it arises in your mind. You do not need to judge it or try to push it out - just look at it. - Get off the computer; don't hesitate to turn off your computer when need be. The above measures among others could help you overcome facebook addiction. Facebook no doubt will continue to draw more and more users by the day. However, caution must be taken to ensure that precious man hours that ought to have been utilized in actualizing worthy causes are not wasted rummaging carelessly on facebook. |