We are a one laptop family. When hubby is off on the weekends I rarely get a chance at the computer if at all. Usually this irritates me, however I noticed this evening that I felt very distressed from not having been attached to the thing by my invisible power cord. It seems that there are times I am almost obsessed with all my social networking.
I am either Facebookin, blogging or tweetin or something!!! Yeah.. . Hubby got me hooked on facebook. I remember telling him that it was a very adolescent thing to do…but you know I would try it just once o.k…I was going to be a recreational Facebook user…just on weekends maybe, you know to loosen up, have a little fun…well that quickly turned into about a 50 time a day habit!!! Soon Facebook was not enough…because when I wasn’t on Facebook, I was blogging, then I got hooked on Twitter, and started “tweeting” (curiously close to the word tweeking don’t you think).
I even have a whole routine I follow. I log on and check my email, then I go and check my Facebook, drop some random comment, see who is on, then I quickly switch over to Twitter, seems I just HAVE to know what people like Kevin Spacey or others I do not know personally are doing RIGHT THIS MINUTE! Then I quickly go back to Facebook, just incase someone wrote back another random comment, then back to email, then twitter, on and on. It’s insane! I mean people who I have not seen or talked to since grade school, I all of a sudden need to know what they are doing.
All weekend I kept complaining about the heat in the house, I was sweating and I felt faint. Now I think that what was happening was that I was actually detoxing from social networking.
I have been thinking about this for a while, and I think it is really important to touch upon this issue because someday this could open up into a whole new area for doctors to analyze and study patients. I’m sure it has already begun but the addiction level some have to social networking websites is becoming a serious problem. You all know who you are and we all have at least one in our circle of friends. Those that are out with a group of friends and cannot stop checking their Facebook or Myspace page through the iPhone or Blackberry.
Even airlines have gotten on board with it, and offering internet service to passengers - to Heck! with the navigational systems it seems. The air use to be one of the last bastions of seclusion, people couldn't reach you in the air. Now that is gone!
I see it occurring more and more every where I go but it seems the ability to stay connected with others whether you barley know them and haven’t seen them in ten years or you just saw them last weekend seems to be consuming peoples lives.
Imagine this scene: a group of people sitting around in a circle…”Ah...hi my name is Bob” - “Hi Bob!” - shouts the group enthusiastically. “Ah yeah…it started small. I’ve tried just about everything…ah…but I guess my social network of choice is ah…(bit choked up here)…Twitter.” “Yeah…I am a TWIT!” I can just see it…people sneaking cell phones into rehab, laptops shoved down the front of their pants!!
The tricky part is though is the treatment of this social networking addiction. Like..do you cut out any type of communication all together?, or only the kind you have to use a keyboard for? And then think about the poor addict. People everywhere they look with a laptop in a restaurant or cell phone on the bus? They can't get away from it, and is messing with an I-Pod considered a relapse?
Hubby now wants us to get new cell phones with more functions so we can start texting while he’s at work. I don’t know about this…I don’t have a lot of spare time left during the day as it is.
Til later
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