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Hi my name is Amanda, and I’m addicted to Facebook.
I access it on my computer, my phone, from campus, on friend’s computers, my work computer, and any other time I’m connected to the Internet. I post pictures, I share links, I play mindless games, I constantly update my status, and I do my fair share of Facebook-stalking. Heck, I even saw “The Social Network” three times.
But as the days go on and I get busier and busier, I realize that I don’t have much time for things I love. Yet I still find myself spending time on trivial things like this social networking site.
The other day my friend said she hated Facebook because it was such a waste of time, while she was mindlessly clicking away through a stranger’s photo album. I told her to simply delete it. Instead, she said she just couldn’t. She was so earnest about the fact that she couldn’t live without Facebook, and it was an instant reality check.
Why has our generation let this Internet site takeover our lives? According to Facebook.com, they have over 500 million active users, and people spend more than 700 billion minutes on Facebook per month. Why?
I’ll be the first to tell you that Facebook is a great communication tool. You contact old friends, you make friends with people you never would have otherwise, and you can share your life with the people you care about.
Let’s face it though: that’s not why we use Facebook.
People occupy their precious time stalking people they don’t care about anymore, or even worse, people they don’t even know, and will never know. We waste hours playing games like Farmville, Mob Wars and Snake. We friend request people we barely know. We keep tabs on people we dislike and make snide comments about their lame status updates. Then we all judge relationships on whether they are “Facebook official.”
Well it’s time to stop and to refresh our priorities, and not our Facebook feeds.
I’ve made a commitment to cut my use down drastically, and I suggest you do it to.
Here are five basic steps to recovery:
1. Un-set Facebook as your homepage. Set your homepage to something that stimulates your brain. Set yours to CNN or the New York Times ( cnn.com or nytimes.com). So instead of wasting time reading status updates and comments, you read about what’s going on in the world. It’s a more productive way to spend your time.
2. Stop “Facebook-ing” people. Contact people in other ways. Face-to-face is always the best form of contact. People tend to forget that your cell phone does more than just text and email. Give someone a call if you want to say “hey,” don’t just “poke” them. Your relationships will be richer if you actually try and engage in them instead of get to them whenever boredom strikes.
For those people who say, “If I didn’t have Facebook I couldn’t stay in touch with my third cousin, twice removed…” Then I say, if you only stayed in touch through Facebook you probably weren’t that close anyway.
Also if you’re using Facebook as an essential step in your plan to nab that cutie in your class, stop it. Go up to him/her and just ask them out. Don’t sit at your computer waiting for them to maybe Facebook-chat you or “like” your status.
3. Check Facebook once a day. Stop getting email notifications or updates sent to your phone. This will cut down your excessive need to know what people are writing all over your profile. If someone “likes” your status, you’ll find out eventually. No need to stop what you’re doing to read that your best friend thinks the weather stinks too.
4. Limit your stalking. Why spend half an hour stalking wedding pictures of the sister of the girl you played soccer with in fourth grade? Why still check to see what your ex is doing? Worst of all, why do you stalk yourself? You know what you’re favorite movie and bands are. It’s easy to get sucked into Facebook, but limiting your Facebook surfing can free up more time in your schedule to do something productive.
This also goes for people in relationships. Stop obsessively checking your boy/girlfriend’s page; it’s just a fight waiting to happen. Also never, under any circumstance, give your password to your significant other.
5. Delete it. It’s that simple. If you hate Facebook, no one’s forcing you to have one. Remember: deleting your Facebook doesn’t mean you’re deleting your existence. Quite the opposite, it means you care more about experiencing life than sitting on the Internet.
With these easy steps you can start your recovery from your Facebook addiction.
But before you sign off Facebook for good, be sure to “like” this article and post it to your Facebook wall!
Contact CU Independent Opinion Editor Amanda Mountinho at Amanda.mountinho@colorado.edu.
