Face Book has been around for sometime now. It’s pretty much one of the top social sites out there linking people and their friends from all around the world. But just how addicted have you become? Have we lost the art of traditional face to face communication?
Face Book is one of the most well known websites out there today. It’s a great way to track lost friends and network with their friends. I know that most of my associates are a member of it and it has been a good resource to track lost buddies.
However, it is becoming apparent that many people and users of this site are becoming increasingly addicted to it. They find they spend most of their social life sat in front of the computer screen typing messages back and forth.
PRIVATE LIVES EXPOSED FOR ALL TO SEE
Others complain it is also exposing our own private lives for the world to see. Okay so you can contact via email, but many people are posting how they feel, what they are doing and who with nowadays. With the addiction of so many “add-ons” it is also in some cases straining what were once solid relationships between two loved ones. Now it is too easy to “flirt” with someone who is married or with a partner. And in some instances this spells the beginning for potential disaster that affects not just partners but also families.
I’ve had a couple of friends, and dare I say “ex-girlfriends” that have contacted me OR who have been in a relationship one day and then declared themselves “single” the next. Only to find that a number of men, classed or added as “friends” see this and immediately start the flirting. The same goes for men also. They are in a relationship one day and the next they are single, only to find numerous women or girls “hitting” on them for their attention.
Well you could say, is that unusual? Well it is a big NO. It happens anyway. Two people break up and people that have admired them from afar have made their move.
But with Face Book and other such sites, it is all too easy to make the initial contact and make your move. And the irony of it all is people just aren’t afraid to let everyone know if they want to!
But that is just a small part of the Internet World we live in.
COMMUNICATION
We all have to communicate. But today we find we walk around and see every other person texts away on their mobile phones or sat at home emailing someone.
Have we as a society moved away from traditional face to face communication and contact and now rely on or indeed find it so much easier to communicate whilst hiding behind a PC or phone?
I think so. But that is just my opinion.
Computers, emailing and mobile phone texting are all great ways and certainly helpful ways to bring the world so much closer together. That isn’t being disputed. But despite those great benefits, because of that have we become so reliable and complacent that when faced with someone we just “do not know what to say?”
Parents from a generation or two ago now complain their kids spend too much time on the computer. Yet ironically it is themselves who switch the Internet on at night when the children are tucked up in bed and start typing away.
So is Face Book a good thing? Or have we become that absorbed in the ease of web based and mobile phone communication, that we have forgotten just what it means to chat face to face?
I’d be interested in feedback on this scenario. Let’s be honest, we all know we are living in a technologically based world where communication has never been easier. But have you, the user, become addicted and have you found that it has took the art of face to face communication and transformed you into a person who now struggles to do just that?
Please comment!
September 28th, 2009 at 6:02 am
Having been put through the crapper the last few weeks I’d say that this story is so sadly true , certainly ruined my relationship. but who knows maybe on the lighter side it might bring me close to someone else.
Peace
September 28th, 2009 at 6:11 am
I feel that face book can be very addictive and in the beginig as a new thing. i found myself up until all hours talking to people i had lost contact with years ago. I love the idea that we can now do that. However during this time i did not stop going out with my very large group of friends and family and socialising. I feel that if you are that way inclined to become addicted to one thing it is already in your nature to do so and facebook or any other tecnology will not make it happen. I now visit the sight almost daily for about half an hour to cath up and occasionally stay on if im alone and not buisey. If it wasnt face book when the children are in bed as most evenings i am the sole carrer, it would be t.v. at lease this way you are communicating with another human being. I feel if you are a well adjusted human being then this sight is just another way of communication and not the only way …therefore addiction is not an issue unless as ive said before you are that way inclined by which case you would not necessarily go out socialising and would replace one addiction with another. I do not feel i am addicted to this sight and use it as an extrs form of communication and not to replace any other kind.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:25 am
I’d agree with the above, but we all have a choice, if we choose to use the flirt sites so be it. I do think it can depersonalise things, some guys make comments and approaches that are wholely in appropriate, simply because they are sat miles away and know they unlikely to ever meet you. My choice was to remove myself from these sites.
I have had a couple of women contact me and question my relationship with their partners, but as I insist on keeping it friends only with attached guys, I have nothing to hide, some of these women have in turn become good friends.
Facebook has kept me company on lonely evenings, and provided me with the opportunity to make friends far and wide therefore broadening my horizons, and I find the status chages let those friends keep in touch even if we don’t always speak very often.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:01 am
I agree facebook is very addictive and also a good site i work unusual hours in my job so i find it a better way of communicating with friends and family i live miles from my family and friends and i have made lots of new friends some have helped me out with certain problems and visa versa i also agree and in some respect disagree about making or breaking a relationship i split from my previous relationship because of things that were being said on facebook but then i found my latest boyfriend on facebook i belong to certain other well know websites but prefer facebook I agree with jo i have had other women contact me asking about mt relationship with there patners and have also become very good friends with them
I love facebook and will remain on it and love my friends on there also
September 28th, 2009 at 9:17 am
As a single mother with a young son who isn’t able to go out and socialise that often due to him and financial restraints, facebook for me has become quite addictive. I do tend to have it on most of the time and yes I do have messages going back and forth. However this has not had a detrimental effect on my ability to be able to converse face to face with people and I love nothing more than meeting up with friends and doing just that. Facebook for me is just an extension of that and when I am sat at home at night with my son in bed I would rather go online than sit and watch tv. Saying that I can see how some people who were less confident and sociable than me could use facebook as their only source of communication with others. That is quite sad although without facebook what would those kinds of people have? It is all well and good us confident ones saying get out and get a life but for them it may not be that easy. Furthermore, I do think that facebook could be very dangerous and destructive for those people in marriages and relationships as just like you said it is very easy to become flirtatious. I suppose again that would depend on the type of person you were and where your morals lie!
September 28th, 2009 at 9:58 am
I think this whole facebook markey is sometimes blown too much out of proportion. My grandmother would say that phones are a bad thing because now we dont visit her or write that often… its all a matter of perspective and according to me just a natural progress in the process of globalisation.
In my opinion facebook is one of the best inventions of modern times.
September 28th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I met my boyfriend on facebook , but it wasn’t all plain sailing, it has its positives and negatives, and can be very addictive,but its the way of the world these days. Set ur profile to private , and just add ur friends if ur in a relationship. Stops temptation on both parts !!
September 28th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I think its all about balance! If you chose to use face book just be aware of the pit falls, the trouble and heart ache it can bring. I don\’t use face book to often, I only use it to keep in touch with family members and a few friends………Thats just the way I like it I rule face book it doesn\’t rule me.
September 28th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
facebook is a valuable tool to keep in contact with friends and catch up with old friends that you’ve lost contact with. the danger can be that you spend too much time on facebook instead of socialising with friends face to face. it’s down to the induvidual to make the balance between the two.
September 28th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I would not say iam that addicted but i do go on it everyday once a day mainly late at night i like to heck my messages and chat to mates , I feel we may have lost the art of traditional communication some where along the line but i do love the site was not keen on the changes when they first did them but getting use to it now
September 28th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I would not say iam that addicted but i do go on it everyday once a day mainly late at night i like to heck my messages and chat to mates , I feel we may have lost the art of traditional communication some where along the line but i do love the site was not keen on the changes when they first did them but getting use to it now
September 28th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Yes I would say I do enjoy checking Facebook at least once a day, mainly at night. I’m so busy with family, work, etc that I find it gives me chance to catch up with friends from school, that I probably wouldn’t have seen again. To have the banter with people who I work with, a chance to meet up, send each other gifts and fun stuff online is good fun too. The traditional art of conversation I haven’t lost either…I still find time to chat to friends on the phone and face to face. I think its possible to balance both but can see how it’s so much easier to go online…….you’ve had a hard day at work and not really in the mood for conversation so it can be a good outlet for an alternative way of communicating. Addicted to Facebook??? Well yes!!!