The Facebook addiction spreads

The Facebook addiction spreads

April 20, 2012

A new pestilence is sweeping across the land with unremitting virulence. You may have

thought you were safe from it. You may have even thought you would be able to control

the disease-that you were immune from it. No such luck. It has spread to this campus. It

has spread to your homes and offices. It has even spread to your home computer. The

name of the disease: The Facebook.

Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. Don't act like you haven't already

spent hours adding friends and joining random groups, including the group entitled "I'm

addicted to Joining Random Facebook Groups." If you actually haven't encountered this

epidemic. Whose side effects may cause grade reduction and sleep deprivation, I will

explain. 

Facebook is possibly the greatest and most entertaining timewaster disguising itself as a

unifying college community since study groups. Registration is simple; you must simply

have a university e-mail address to join. You can then create your profile, much like a

typical forum Internet site, and start viewing profiles along common interests, joining

groups and adding friends. After that, you can begin to indulge in the witty and highly

intellectual discourse about cartoons and living in a van down by the river. You can

convince yourself that you're doing something productive and noteworthy, especially

when you join or form an organization group, or even meet new people from the many

other colleges hosted on Facebook. But let's face it. Facebook is entertaining and

addictive, pure and simple. Most of the groups center around various movies, TV shows

and hobbies. Even more include what we would call MSU in-jokes, hooking people with

Waffle House, the wave guy, hatred of online homework and various fan clubs for

random unknown individuals. 

You do get more than entertainment from Facebook, though. As I was browsing last

night. Presumably doing research for this article. A certain sense of satisfaction crept up

on me. I was seeing people online that  I had noticed throughout campus, and even had

classes with a few of them. I saw how people I knew were connected to other people, and

even other people I knew. I was starting to get a sample of just how interconnected this university is. 

Not only does everyone know everyone, I began to realize that people were actually

talking and finding common interests outside of their own group of friends. How often

does that really happen walking across campus? We see people every day, and we talk to

people on the cell phone between classes, but where can we find the free discourse of

Facebook anywhere else outside of organizations? 

Facebook is a place for unlimited communication-where anyone can talk to anyone

without barrier. And we can do it all on our own time, without leaving our own territory

or comfort zone. And where can you find a place that you only talk about one common

interest. People do not have a sign on their foreheads listing that they're interested in '80s

movies and skeeball.  Neither can you simply ask, "Hey, I was looking for someone who

likes Bob Marley and, hey, you look like just the type..." Yeah. That would work. That's

where The facebook comes in. Not only can you join the Bob Marley group, you can also

click the link to Bob Marley in your interests. The site will perform an instant search

through profiles to find all the people who groove to Marley.

And I've only been talking about people from MSU. On this site, we can have the same

type of discourse with college students all over America. Our relatively small community

of MSU can expand to encompass like-minded "scholars" from far and wide. We can

discuss sushi with a guy from Maine. Isn't that fun? As with any form of entertainment, especially on the Internet, we must use moderation

and not have to join the group "Facebook Made Me Fail My Exams!!" We must

remember that with great power, or a great forum site, comes great responsibility. Your

Bush group can wait until after physics homework.  Just keep repeating that to yourself, and you may believe it.