“Hey, guess what, I have five hundred friends in my FB! And you know what, my latest photo got three hundred and twenty three likes” - a typical comment of a campus organism these days. Now, this put me thinking for a while.. (Well, I think crazy these days, especially because I have to write something for this column! You got it?)
Opened my laptop and searched for the words –“Facebook addiction”. Lo, here comes a Pandora of information related to Facebook Addiction Disorder (in short F.A.D). Articles titled “ Six ways to quit FB addiction”, “Eight symptoms of FB addiction” etc came in the first page of my googling. Oh! Some new businesses are also thriving just because of this F.A.D! For eg: “Psychotherapy for FB addiction”, “Counseling service for FB de – addiction” etc are some of them!
The whole concept of Facebook or for that matter, any social networking sites is, in my opinion, exploitation of our basic human needs. Abraham Maslow (one famous psychologist, dear!) divided the whole human needs into five levels in the form of a pyramid – starting from the basic physiological needs (eating ,clothing, sleeping!) , then safety needs , then social needs , later self esteem needs and finally on top of the pyramid comes self actualization needs. Well, you got the point? I mean to say that all these social networking sites are huge businesses thriving on our social need and to some extent self esteem and self actualization needs.
We, human beings are social animals and no one can change that right? So, why not cash in with that need? If you observe closely on all the special features of these social networking sites, you will find that each of them caters to some kind of the above listed needs! For eg: the various games, apps, family tree, chat options, likes, dislikes, scraps, comments etc. But unfortunately, we, the poor victims fall prey for it and end up talking to our closest friend also through these sites! We stop the real talking and only send scraps. We upload photos and keep counting the number of likes and dislikes. We post some opinion and wait for counter opinion. All at the cost of the most precious resource at our hand –“Time”! In the process, we actually lose contact with real people and live in a utopian unreal world called “my profile”.
But these are all theories, practically everyone these days are on Facebook or similar sites ( Yes, I’ve got one too!). As with every phenomenon, there is a good side and bad side. When things shift to the bad side, there comes the problem. So, guys, think and spend your time wisely. Otherwise you will end up becoming a client of some new business!
Footnote: A recent study conducted among American school students proves that those who are always connected to Facebook (through laptop or mobiles) perform less in academics. The addiction can also lead to depression and similar psychological disorders at a later stage.
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