Get off Facebook and open Your-book!

Five signs that you are addicted to Facebook, according to CNN.com:

1. You lose sleep over Facebook
2. You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook
3. You become obsessed with old flames
4. You ignore work in favour of Facebook
5. The thought of getting off Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat

Does it sound like you? Or someone you know?

A study by Retrevo just last month revealed that 30% of us who have any form of social networking account will, if awoken during the night, log in to post something.

The first thing that 53% of those surveyed did in the morning was check what happened after they logged off the previous night.

7% would even respond to posts on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace during sex.

OH MY GOD! GET SOME HELP!

I am probably the most computer-illiterate twenty year old on the planet right now. I rarely check my Facebook, and when I do manage to remember my password and log in before it blocks my email address completely, I find that it has changed. Every single time! I can't navigate around. I can't even find my profile. And sometimes, I can't even find the log out button!

I had the pleasure of my sister trying to teach me the ins and outs last weekend whilst I was home. After nearly two hours, she threw her hands in the air, defeated, and proclaimed 'You are a lost cause!'. Nice.

I can understand people's fascination with all the sites that are available now. But I can't understand how it has come to be a more popular form of communication than a face to face conversation with someone. It makes me fidgety with rage just thinking about it!

I, admittedly, use Twitter. But the people I follow generally follow me back. I don't feel like some crazed fan-girl stalker. I follow a fair share of celebrities. But I'm pretty sure they are only celebrities in my eyes. Reasonably little known bands, singers, writers, producers, directors and such. Heroes in my eyes but no-names in yours. I hold on to this because they are generally more open to talk to you than big names. And in the industry I'm chasing a job in, I find contact with them invaluable!

I hate hearing conversations on bus that revolve around celebrity twitter updates. 'Oh my god, did you see John Mayer's latest post?' 'Dude! On twitter Nathan Followill said he was getting married today!' Oh, for Pete's sake! Get a grip!

We also judge young users of these sites when they end up in trouble. Whether it be for posting compromising pictures, talking to predators, defacing pages, threatening other users, everyone can see all of this and teenagers just don't understand!

So, I tend to lean towards most networking sites being detrimental to society. I get that they are a source of communication, greater than any snail mail sent letter, but I can't get my head around the obsession with them. Give me face to face, or at least voice to voice, interaction any day!










theoatmeal.com/quiz/facebook_addict

Go on, just take the test. You already know the answer anyway!