The Facebook Addiction

Why has the social network website facebook become so popular and virtually affecting millions of people across the globe?

Facebook was launched in February 2004 and is operated and privately owned by facebook Inc, with more than 500 million active users in July 2010.

It affords users to add people as friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles and to notify friends about themselves. Additionally users can join networks organised by workplaces, schools, colleges, political parties and religious groups amongst others.

Long before the introduction of facebook, people used their mobile phones, yahoo and other means to communicate and share experiences with friends, business associates and families, but the advent of facebook some few years ago has changed the previous phenomena and is slowly changing behavioural patterns.

With the huge number of users across the globe, the social network website is arguably the most patronised among twitter, net log, yahoo, Skype, my space, Bebo, and the list goes on. But what is so unique about facebook to the others?

An internet café attendant, Johnson Smith from Streatham in London, said “At first when I visited the internet, all I knew was yahoo to send message and wait for a day or two to get a response. But now facebook is proven reliable even more than mobile phones and people love using it, as I also enjoy hooking on it 24/7”. “You see people visit this café and all they do is spend hours on facebook chatting and laughing, and they leave the café as happy people, so you see facebook is spot on” Johnson Smith added.

But do users of the website use it for the purposes for which it was introduced?

“Here is an internet café, and we don’t monitor what people use it for. What I’m interested in is for them to leave the café happy and call again later, but of course people have ulterior motives and that’s their problem” the café attendant concluded.

Most people use facebook for many different reasons to the extent that some have to wake up at dawn or while in the office or in a bus to sign in on facebook. And some people I spoke to told me it has become a part and parcel of their lives, and they feel sick if they go for a day without visiting the website.

Danny Tekere, a Zimbabwean living in Ghana, said “Facebook has become a vehicle through which I get in touch with my family back home, I mean I can’t do without facebook; it’s the way I live now”.

“I log on every day, it’s affordable and comfortable as I can sit in my room and chat the whole night. It gives me a lot of joy, I just can’t afford to let go of facebook” Danny concluded.

Though facebook has met with some challenges, such as being blocked by several countries including Pakistan, China, Syria, Iran and Vietnam, and has also been banned at many work places to discourage employees from wasting time, it still remains the most patronised social network site in many other countries.

The MD of Coalition Ventures, Ghana, Jonathan Aryeetey, added that “two workers have been sacked in two weeks for using business hours to chat on facebook with their friends and loved ones after incessant warnings.”

In as much as it allows users to connect to friends and family and the fun and excitement associated with it, others have problems with it especially controlling their children from the addiction and also there are concerns that it is destroying homes and causing a lot of discomfort.

A researcher from Ohio State University, Aryn Kapinski, said “every generation has its distractions but I think facebook is a phenomenon”. The Ohio report showed that students who use facebook had a “significantly” lower grade point on average than those who did not use the site.

Simone, a university student, said “I was in the library pondering over writing a 1,500 word article when I realised my facebook habit has gone from bad to worse” she said. “I couldn’t resist going online, you do that then someone’s photo catches your eye. Before you know it a couple of minutes has turned into hours and you haven’t written a thing”.

It also comes with dangers and can damage marriages and relationships. People use sweet words that can make a person fall in love, but they don’t know the real person inside. This has put many women and girls into serious danger when they have physically met with the person they’ve been chatting with. It can cause relationships and marriages to break-up, as facebook allows a closeness that’s easily accessible and easily hidden. Some people have even agreed to get married as a result of their facebook relationship without ever having met one another.

Jeanette, a mother and a banker, said “I keep nagging my husband to minimise his time on facebook but to no avail and I suspect he is using the thing to woo women. I trust him but I have my doubts, I am really not happy so I am not on facebook. I use my phone for everything except social websites”.

Though some users have complained and threatened to quit facebook for what they consider as poor security settings, a lot more are signing on each minute.

Daniel Quansah is a web expert and has this to say: “a lot of people take advantage of the site to make new friends, exhibit their postings and even do business with it, so facebook seems now like an addiction that cannot be given up, and neither is there any other thing to give people fun like facebook.”

An educationist Dr. Sophia Westcott indicated that taking advantage of the website and learning new things every day enhances the academic social being of people. “But to travel from mere usage to becoming hooked is a great source of worry to many parents including me, as my children have been stricken by the ‘facebook addiction’. In as much as I found it 80% useful, I was cautious not to become addicted, so I tried not to stay online too much” she submitted.

Though it comes with a lot of fun and interest, must one be addicted to the site so much so that some use office hours, and sacrifice their sleep to go on facebook?

Thomas Cook, a 28 year university student, said “we must disabuse the assertion by most patrons that facebook is not just a social network to be used for leisure only but also to define ways to do business easily on it”.

Indeed facebook has a lot of intellectuals signed up, including politicians, academics, business executives, and charities etc, but are they also addicted the same way as the others? Thomas Cook submitted that “apart from the intellectual activities I engage in on the website, I also chat with my wife in America who I have missed for two years and it’s fantastic.” Others submitted that they engage with their school colleagues and other political figures to brainstorm.

With these varied opinions, one can say that signing up for facebook brings a lot of fun and helps broaden your horizons. It has its controversies and challenges which if not careful can distract your focus thus a lot of caution must be taken, but how long must one hang on to it?

Have all the fun but don’t be addicted to facebook and drop your grades or lose your job, husband or wife, because the addiction is growing at a fast speed and affecting friends and families both positively and negatively. Do not be a victim.

Story by: Samuel Ablordeppey samuelablordepey@yahoo.com