Ask any Adelphi University student if they have a Facebook account and the answer will be a unanimous yes. Step off campus and ask the same question to any tween or teen, businessman or businesswoman, husband or wife, grandmother or grandfather, and chances are they will say yes, too. With over 300 million active users around the world, it may be a challenge finding anyone living outside of the Facebook scene.Yet, if you ask these same users if they are addicted to Facebook, many will deny anything of the sort. Don’t be fooled, though: According to Facebook.com’s Press Room, Facebook users, just like you, spend an overwhelming 6 billion minutes each day (worldwide) updating their profiles and surfing their friends’ pages.
I may be the first to admit that yes, I am mildly addicted. From the moment I wake up to right before I turn off my computer to go to bed, I check my Facebook account. I also access Facebook through my mobile phone, which, according to Facebook, accounts for 65 million of its users.
But for most who view Facebook addiction as "stalking," I'd say that's not always the case. I primarily use Facebook as a social device to keep in touch with friends who live far away. In fact, one of my friends, Mikaela Celli, recently moved back home to California from Adelphi University. She too uses Facebook as a way to keep in touch.
“I could send regular e-mails and sometimes I do, but let's face it, chances are if someone has a Facebook they are more likely to check and respond to that than to e-mail,” she said. “I can leave videos for my friends and it will be there for them instantly, even if they are 3,000 miles away like many of my close friends are.”
Salvatore Fallica, professor of Communications at Adelphi University, agrees: “Facebook has a variety of appeals. It’s interactive and it also visualizes relationships. It allows people to connect in ways they can’t in their normal everyday lives.”
Though Facebook is an excellent way to connect and keep in touch with long lost loves, former classmates, family members and current friends, do the negative characteristics outweigh the good? Before agreeing to join Facebook, users should also agree to throw their private life out the door. Quite the opposite from your parents and grandparents, young adults, like you, are used to revealing personal information – in fact, you usually don’t think twice about it.
“That’s because kids have grown up in a culture of revelation,” Professor Fallica said. It is through talk shows, reality TV and the not-so-private life of celebrities, he believes, where this care-free attitude all began. With so many features to choose from – games, quizzes and applications such as “Pieces of Flair” – users often find that what was supposed to be a five minute stay, ends up being an hour or more on the Web site.
So, what's an Adelphi University student to do when they are caught between the all-too-common decision to do homework or surf Facebook? Take a look at CNN's video, "Five Clues You Are Addicted to Facebook" and decide for yourself.
~Leslie Fazin
