Facebook Addiction

Facebook is a social network website found by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes in February 2004. According to Social Media Today, there are around 600 million active members on Facebook and it is estimated that 41.6% of the U.S. population has a Facebook account as of April 2010.

With the exponentially increasing number of Facebook users, Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) became one of the hottest topics all over the world recently. FAD is an addiction presented by some psychologists which means people whose lives are highly affected by unrestrained Facebook activities. There are around 350 million people suffering from FAD and the number of patients is increasing in a fast rate. Yet, what makes Facebook so addictive; moreover, does Facebook Addiction even exist?

I believe there are three main reasons that make Facebook so addictive. First, it gives users a sense of self-worth. Facebook gives a platform that allows users to let the world know about their interests, thoughts and bits and pieces about their lives. They can also talk and share anything without the fear of being labeled as self-obsessed. Also, each message and notification makes them feel important and can boost their self-esteem. The second reason is Facebook stalking. Facebook allows users to view and spy on photos and conversations of their friends or even someone they don’t know without other people knowing. Facebook can also help people who are too shy or too busy to meet or call to catch up with their friends. Last but not least, Facebook on mobile phones makes Facebook addictive as well. As more and more people are using smart phones nowadays, Facebook application on mobile makes it easier for users to get access to Facebook. People can update statues and photos whenever and wherever they want. “Almost one fifth of users are now accessing the site through their mobile phones and official statistics suggests that users become on average 50% more active once they do so” (Understanding Facebook Addiction, www.suite101.com).
 

Now we know Facebook is addictive, however, there is no official medical founding that supports Facebook Addiction. So, to prove whether FAD exists depends on how we define “addiction”. There are commonly two forms of symptoms can be called as “addiction” according to The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and StatisticalManual of Mental Disorders: substance dependence and pathological gambling. Obviously, it is inappropriate to use pathological gambling to judge the existence of FAD, and it is also hard to prove whether Facebook is substance dependent. Therefore, I would like to link it to an official disorder, Internet Disorder. In fact, FAD should be categorized as a kind of Internet Disorder. 

In 2008, China registered Internet Addiction as a medical disorder with the World Health Organization. Tao Ran has reached his conclusion by studying 3000 people for four years, and he also set up the first Internet Addiction clinic at Beijing’s Military General Hospital. “Dr. Tao said that he compared his data with that of experts in the United States, where internet addiction is not recognized as a disease. He had determined that an addict spent 6.13 hours online each day, a figure that coincides with the US assessment of 6.14 hours a day. Research by the internet media company InterActiveCorp shows that 42 per cent of Chinese youngsters polled felt addicted to the internet, compared with 18 per cent in the US” (Internet addiction made an official disorder in China, The Times). 

Dr. Tao found that Internet Addicts usually also suffer from depression, sleeping disorder and unwillingness to interact with others, which coincidently match with the symptoms of FAD. So, studies support that Facebook Addiction is a form of Internet Addiction. 

Facebook addiction can cause depression. A recent study from Edinburgh Napier University says, the more friends you have on Facebook, the higher the chance you will be stressed out. According to Dr. Kathy Charles, the doctor who conducted this research, 32 percent of Facebook users feel guilty when they reject friend requests, and 12 percent of them think Facebook makes them anxious. Many of them feel stressed and anxious because of the exclusion on Facebook community and lack of attractiveness of their pages. Furthermore, some of them even lose sleep, miss meal and school because of FAD. Thus, I think the negative impacts of addiction to Facebook definitely outweigh the benefits of using it.

To prevent yourself from getting too deep into Facebook, you can test yourself to see whether you are addicted to Facebook. Here are five ways from CNN to check if you have FAD. “1. You lose sleep over Facebook. If you're staying up late at night because you're on Facebook, and you're tired the next day, Facebook may be a compulsion for you. 2. You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook. 3. You become obsessed with old loves. Reconnecting with old friends is one of the great attractions of Facebook, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with ‘friending’ an old boyfriend or girlfriend. 4. You ignore work in favor of Facebook. If you're not doing your job in order to sneak time on Facebook, you could have a real problem. 5. The thought of getting off Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat. Sarah Browne, who writes the Guru of New blog, gave up Facebook for Lent last month when she realized that she had a ‘mild’ addiction to the site” (Five clues that you are addicted to Facebook, articles.cnn.com).

If you are unfortunately addicted to Facebook, I have some suggestions for you to quit it. The first thing I recommend is to close your Facebook wall. Once your friends can’t post anything on your wall, you don’t have to spend time on responding to the posts or keep checking new wall posts. It is more efficient than disabling email notification. This allows you to cut yourself off from the addiction without having to sacrifice the good communication network of Facebook. If you can’t get rid of your Facebook addiction by closing your wall, you can get a time limiter plugin to help you. The purpose of getting a time limiter is to keep track and control the time you spend on Facebook. Imagine a nanny standing beside you doing nothing, but reminding you to get off Facebook when you exceed the time limit. Sounds Great? If everything else failed, the last thing you can do is to deactivate your Facebook. Totally cut yourself off Facebook and go get a life! 

There are many benefits of using Facebook, but moderation is very important. Through Facebook, you can find some of your old friends; you can find business connections; you can chat and keep track on your friends’ life easily, so Facebook is a great social network platform. However, overusing and addiction can offset the benefits you get from Facebook. Thus, try to find your way out as soon as possible when you are addicted to it. Moderate your time on Facebook, and spend more on your real life.