Facebook vs. Stalkbook vs. Procrastinationbook

So facebook is a social utility.  Awesome.  It allows college students (and everyone else now) to keep in touch with old friends and make new friends.  You can share pictures and write on walls and update your status and do a hundred other things.

You can also stalk people quite effectively.  In fact, when the nifty little news feed feature came out, Facebook was widely referred to as Stalkbook (at least on my campus) for some time.  Privacy settings helped nip this in the bud, but it’s still quite easy to keep track of someone’s life without their ever knowing it.  With constant status updates, new pictures, new comments, and new applications, it’s pretty easy to figure out what people are up to.

I don’t really feel this is a good thing.  For one, I feel that Facebook makes relationships more difficult.  You may wonder how, since as a social networking site it would make sense that it brings people together.  I have witnessed first hand World War III fights because of a picture or comment surfacing on the pages of Fbook.  People are not meant to be in communication with one another 24 hours a day…especially if those people are 20-something college students with bad tempers and jealousy issues.

Facebook is also the devil when it comes time to start homework.  You log in innocently enough, and then that damn news feed pops up.  WHAT?  Joe is “Facebook Official” with Sara now?  Tim broke up with Katie?  Sam changed her profile picture?  And Jil posted a new album?!  There’s so much to see.  Then you start clicking through those dangerous little links and next thing you know it’s 2 hours later and none of your work is done.  I have even seen friends with status’s like “Matt is procrastinating on Facebook instead of doing homework.”  It’s an incredibly common occurrence on a college campus.

Yet I still log on.  Everyday.  Several times a day.  Ok more than several times.  Why?  Because I’m addicted.  And so is everyone else I know in the Facebook community.  I can only hope that one day I will be able to give up this obsession.  I wouldn’t be surprised if a real F.A.A. (Facebook Addicts Anonymous) truly surfaced in the future.