This week my goals where to create and finish my Facebook addiction article. These goals were completed and I have created and completed the first draft of my Facebook Addiction Article. I have also gotten feedback on the article from my target audience and will be making changes to the article soon. This puts me on time with my schedule.
My intention for the article was to create an informative and serious article which could give help to those who have friends or family with Facebook addiction. The general thought of my article from my target audience is that I have for filled this criteria.
Below is the 1st draft for the article:
Facebook is something that genuinely scares me. Not in the
Freddy Krueger is in the wardrobe about to rip my throat out scared, but scared
in the sense of what it is capable of. A study earlier this year said that the
population of Facebook spend 10.5 billion minutes a day on the procrastinating
king of the internet. This stat alone makes Zuckerburg look like the puppet
master of the world and most people would agree with me on that, but in total
honesty I can’t see why.
I've never given into hype or recommendations, so when
Facebook was first starting to gain popularity I was never really got into it
and still haven’t. Mainly because the idea of updating people on what I'm doing
was slightly unnerving to me but even now I only use Facebook to check
birthdays, talk to the five or six people I actually like using the chat thing
and try to piece together what I can remember about last night from a series of
drunken photo bombing.
From this you can
probably figure out I’m not convinced on the whole idea of Facebook addiction.
It’s strange to me that people can stare for hours at the same meaningless
bullshit day after day yet still sprout a cyber stiffy when someone sends them
a cow to add to their Farmville. I could go on but it is actually a serious
issue that is spreading faster around the internet then a cat doing gangnam
style.
So how does it all begin? Some experts say it's the small
social "achievements" we get from using Facebook. For example you put
up a status and some people like it, you personally gain the self satisfaction
that something you said is making someone LOL or ROFL, and with this new found
comfort in knowing people like your contribution to the internet, it makes you
feel good. Of course we as humans hate not being liked, even the "f**k the
haters!" kids that swear they need know one still crave the attention of
being liked that we all need. So because of this we update again, and again,
and again.
Some other experts say people find a new level of
interaction that they would never get in the real world. This is most common in
people that are socially awkward and reluctant to interact with the outside
world. But online, people can come out of their shell. There's no face to face
communication, no pressure of coming up with witty responses, the ability to
quickly take back what you said before confrontation starts. Just them and the
internet. This cutting out the middle man approach to social interaction soon
becomes the only social interaction these people get, consuming their spare
time that non-addicts would spend socialising in the real world.
So how can you spot an addict? The signs are very subtle,
very little things that combined obviously point to addiction. One of these
things are frequent updates. Addicts tend to update several times a day, even
as far as 10-15 status updates daily during all times whether it be day or
night. Another symptom is changing profile pictures excessively. This comes
back to the "likes = good self esteem" reason for doing this erratic
swapping of photos, hoping that your new picture can get you more likes then
the one from last month. Another one which is a little more obvious is the
amount of time spent on Facebook. Addicts spend hours upon hours tirelessly going
through status updates, photos and friend requests just to satisfy the social
media itch they have.
A person I know very well is one of these people who shows
most of these symptoms. He always seems to be online, status updates are
frequent as well as photos and sharing of pages. He was once a normal teenager,
he went out whenever he could, he did well in school and like most of us, he
had Facebook. His addiction didn't take long to kick in and the once social and
lively friend we all had known once before, had become a drained shell of his
former self. Overworked from falling behind in college and sleeping very little
because he was catching up on work. I met up with him recently to talk about
his "Over using of Facebook." He didn't like me saying addiction.
"I'm not someone who depends on Facebook." He told me, although with
the tone in his voice I don't even think he was convinced. "Yeah I use it
a little too much, but everyone does right? We all log on when we should be revising,
it's just normal."
It's all well and good me telling you how you can spot
someone who's an addict or why they do it and even a personal story on it, but
the real important thing is how to stop it. there are 2 paths you can take when
trying to kick the addiction. The first method is going cold turkey, completely
cutting Facebook out of your life until you feel you're ready to go back online
and not spend 4 hours picking where to put your Farmville carrots. Or the
method I'd recommend, Slowly weaning yourself away from Facebook. Cutting it
out of your life completely sounds all well and good but the dramatic switch in
usage from 10 to 0 hours is too much for people to handle. The further they are
distanced, the more they lust to see what people are doing and sooner or later
they break, then eventually they're hooked once again. However, gradually
lowering the usage, minimizing it to bear essential usage is a lot healthier
than trying to kill the addiction head on. You can start this by deleting any apps
you may have on your phone. The temptation becomes much less powerful when the
big blue icon at the bottom of your phone isn't there. Modern computers now can
also limit the amount of time spent on certain websites. Parental blocks come
in very useful in restricting the amount of time spent on Facebook or even
blocking it completely if you feel it necessary. Any notifications should also
be turned off whether it be by e-mail or the bright red circle that appears
when you have a friend request on your Facebook icon, taking away the
temptation of checking what's been happening in the internet world.
So has these steps helped my friend from becoming a healthy
user. Sadly no. Of course it's easy saying "I'll stop, I'm done." But
the reality is it isn't easy. Just because the addiction isn't a physical thing
like cigarettes or drugs it doesn't make it any easier to kick. My friend
hasn't moved on. He's still stuck in the endless cycle of saying he'll quit,
giving in to temptation and eventually giving in all together saying he'll stop
again next week. But, there are people that can give up. With the support of
friends and family you can kick this unhealthy obsession once and for all.
