Facebook: America’s New Past Time

Addiction is a term used in many contexts. It is used to describe obsession, compulsion, or excessive dependence on a sole substance. The common types of addictions we encounter in modern society are drug, alcohol, shopping, and even food addiction. But now, technology has discovered another type of addiction — social networking.

There have been many social networking websites over the years. After the 2002 launch of the website Friendster, several employees saw the potential this site had, and began working on the site that is now known as Myspace.

“Facebook was founded in 2004 as way for people to communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers,” said the Facebook Press Release. “Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment.”

Facebook is advertised as a way to connect to people all over the world, as well as close friends. It’s basically used to catch up with friends and to interact more with the people from the past and present.

“I use Facebook to keep in touch with my family and friends,” said sophomore Karis Robichaud. “I haven’t seen some people I have as friends in years, so it’s a good way to stay friends with each other. It’s also something I use as a past time.”

However, there are concerns from parents and teachers that Facebook has become too addicting.

Facebook is popular for the numerous applications and games available on the website. Another addiction is the amount of status updates. The website makes it

easier to follow other people, and what they are doing. Many complain that users abuse their status privileges, while others complain about the applications being all over their

page.

Some people say Facebook is an issue, and that parents are concerned for the safety of their kids and their schoolwork might suffer.

“I don’t use Facebook a lot, but I know a lot of people who are constantly on, updating their status and taking random quizzes,” said New Dorp High School sophomore Janeanne Foster. “They’re probably loosing study time because they’re on it constantly.”

Statistics show that there are around 300 million active users on Facebook, with around 50% of active users logging on everyday. Worldwide, around 6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day, and there are more than 40 billion status updates each day.

More on this, there are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. Around 70% of users are from outside the United States.

These statistics speak for themselves. Facebook is used constantly in modern every day life. The addiction is growing and spreading, and the mobile application doesn’t help very much.

People can play it off like it’s not a big deal, but while some find it easy to juggle social time and school time; others can find it hard to find that balance.

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