I was going to do homework but I ended up on Facebook
How do most of us communicate in the age of technology? E-mailing, texting, instant messaging, and social networking sites are currently some of the main forms of communication. Facebook is one of the top outlets of social networking today. Your friends might just include your sister, your best friend, that one kid from English class, the guy you met over spring break, your professors, even your father, the list goes on. Everybody has a Facebook. Well, not everybody.
Some people, like junior Deidre Wright, prefer not to have a Facebook page. Having one has simply never appealed to her. Her virtually inactive MySpace is to keep in contact with those close to her.
“It was worth trying. No need to get another page,” Wright said.
Although Wright assumes that most people like Facebook for the opportunity to “creep” on others.
“To some extent, it would be nice to look up people you have met and know a bit more about them and remember them better,” Wright said. “If I remember them, it will be because we had a meaningful conversation.”
Facebook does not offer a way to truly directly talk with someone else, and you end up spending more time doing other things than talking or sharing with one another. Originally, Facebook was a lot simpler than it is now. It now offers a plethora of distractions, including – but not limited to – quizzes, games, groups, fan pages, a marketplace, and a wide variety of applications. According to Facebook, there are more than 350,000 applications available, from Visual Bookshelf to SuperPoke to Compare People to Friends for Sale to Werewolves.
Garrett Geesman feels that even though Facebook is an easy and convenient way to talk to others, it isn’t necessarily the best way.
“Facebook is also addicting and time consuming when people have better things to be doing,” writes Geesman in an October Facebook note.
According to an Ohio State University study from April 2009, Facebook users had lower grades and studied less than non-Facebook users. Facebook can and does waste our time. We have all heard “I was GOING to do homework, but I ended up on Facebook” or something similar. If it’s eating up your hours, why not take a break?
Instead of getting sucked in, let’s unplug our brains from the computer and get out for a while. Why? Here are just a few reason for us all to try and boycott Facebook for a day, week, month --- or maybe just as long as you can manage.
There is no denying that Facebook does a good job of giving us different options to contact others (e.g., messaging, chatting, writing on walls), but it doesn’t necessarily promote intimacy. That is to say, you might have an easier time conveying more meaning – more accurately – in person, or over the phone, when you can hear the other person’s tone of voice and/or see their body language, things that help you interpret their whole meaning.
Tuning out will give you a break from those annoying status updates and application invitations. “Plain Jane just clipped her toenails” and “Billy Bob joined Farmville, and he wants you to join too!” become repetitive and completely unnecessary.
Less facebooking – oh yes, it is a verb – means more time for you. You can use time that you would have spent online for more sleeping, reading, watching movies, hanging out with friends or even for getting more homework done.
Overall, it is okay to disconnect for a while. In fact, it can be good for you. So try taking a break. Facebook will still be there when you get back. Promise.
