The youngest billionaire and creator of Facebook, Mark Zukerberg, never thought that it will gain so much popularity in such a little time. Today if you don’t have a Facebook account then people are surprised because as they say, “Everybody is on Facebook.”

Facebook (Fb) is the second most visited site of the world... (First is Google).

Today there are more than 1 billion registered users on Facebook. This means every seventh person on this globe is active on Facebook and in all possibility you may be one of them and enjoy using it to stay connected to your online friends. But the important thing that you have to think about is that whether you use Facebook, overuse Facebook or are you addicted to Facebook.  

The Difference between Facebook Use and Overuse

Let’s say to use Facebook means you spend less than one hour daily on Facebook and overuse means you spend more than one hour on Facebook. Here by using Facebook doesn’t just mean that you spend less than one hour on Facebook physically sitting in front of your computer or smart phone, even if you think about it then it is also considered as the time usage because after all when you are thinking about Facebook updates, then you could not concentrate on your other important work, as Facebook is currently occupying your mind space.

If you want to know whether you are addicted to Facebook or not then look at these traits. If these traits are present in you then you are addicted to Facebook.

• Your mind is constantly worrying and thinking about the comments you received on your latest Facebook post. You worry about how many Likes you are getting.
• You constantly refresh your Facebook screen without any reason, hoping to find something new.
• If your internet connection is temporarily down and you are unable to log into your Facebook account then you go to a cyber cafe to check the updates.
• You even bring your mobile or laptop to the toilet in order to use Facebook.
• You say good night to all your Facebook friends before going to sleep and when you wake up in the morning the first thing you do is check your Facebook account to know about the comments you received for the Good Night message.

So think about this carefully. How long do you use Facebook in a day?

Well if it is more than half an hour then you are wasting your time, unless and until you are purposefully doing it. Purposefully means you are using Facebook to promote your business or campaigning for any social cause or any other such meaningful tasks. In such cases it’s worth your time.

Which Type of People Overuse Facebook

In my opinion:

• Those people who don’t have a meaningful goal in their live. Their only purpose is to avoid boredom.
• Those people who want to gain other people’s attention. They can’t get people to pay attention to them in real lives so they create a virtual persona that could make them more popular online.
• Those people who are more interested in the lives of other people. They like gossiping about other people and are constantly worried about what other people are doing. 

The Problems Created by Facebook Over Usage

This list could be very long but here we will see seven problems:

1 You are unknowingly giving the Control of your Happiness to Other People.

How? Well your happiness depends on how other people react to your latest picture and posts. How many people are liking your picture. How many people are commenting about it and what kind of comments you are getting, whether positive or negative?

For instance you purchased a new expensive branded watch and you post its photo on your Facebook page. Obviously you loved that watch that’s why you bought it, but when most people doesn’t like that watch on Facebook and start to point out its flaws and ridicule you for buying it, then you become sad and start to second guess the quality of your new watch.

The opposite is also true. You bought something you didn’t like but other people give you positive feedback about your purchase then you become happy. So in this way you are giving the control of your happiness to your Facebook friends, whom you may never meet face to face in real life.

I am not saying that this happens with everyone, but it’s true that somehow or the other we are affected by these things. And over a long period of time these small effects grow bigger and we become unable to distinguish between our real life and our virtual life.

2 You See Blessings of Others as your Shortcomings

People generally share only the good things happening in their lives on Facebook. They post the pictures of themselves doing something interesting. Their status could look like this, “My new Gizmo”, “Me travelling in London”, etc.

In reality you also do the same. But you also know the truth about your life. In the case of others you only see what they want you to see. You see their new shining car, but you don’t see the huge EMI attached to it. You see the cool office of your friend, but you don’t see the tensions that he has to deal with.

When you see only the good things of others and you compare it to your life then you feel like you lead a boring and uninteresting life. Ultimately you feel low and depressed.

It’s medically proven that everyday more and more people are going into depression because of Facebook. So just be aware and don’t become a victim to this.

3 Real Friends and Relationships Suffer

Many times people proudly declare that they have more than 1000 friends on Facebook. I am sure if half of them ever meet on a street they would not recognize each other. If truth be told, “You have fewer friends and more acquaintances on Facebook.” Well there is nothing wrong with that. But if you give much of your time to these more or less fake relations, then you could not spend that time with your real friends and family. You have to compromise the time you spend with your loved ones.

I know many of our close friends and family members are on Facebook, but frankly speaking, on Facebook they all become the same as other people because there is no real closeness between you. On Facebook everybody is just a part of the crowd and the crowd has no face. Whoever comes in front of you receives your comment and Likes and then you move on to next one. You cannot stay with one individual for long because there are many distractions.

4 Unknowingly you Start to Communicate with an Addict

You may have heard about Pareto Principle. According to this principle 20% things are responsible to get 80% results. It is also known as 80-20 principle.

For example; a company’s 80% sales occur due to the same 20% customers.

Something like this also happens in Facebook. 20% people do the 80% updates and somehow you always end up linking with them. Basically these are those addicted kind of people who are always active on Facebook.  When you interact with these kinds of people then you will rarely get any useful information from that interaction. It is just a waste of time.   

5 You Start to think you are Socially Active, When in Reality you are Not

Many people think of themselves as socially active when they are on Facebook. They think posting Hi and Bye to friends on Facebook is a meaningful interaction. Slowly, as the time passes, it becomes a totally mechanical response. You say Hi to your friends on Facebook but when you see someone from your college or office you don’t react and in some cases try to avoid them because you are not in the mood to have any conversation. It’s like you only care about your online presence and in real life what you do doesn’t count.

When you start behaving like this then other people also try to avoid you because they get a feeling that you don’t really want to talk to them. You come off as a rude person. This means that you feel like you are in touch will all your Facebook friends but in normal life you are losing touch with your real friends.

6 Negative Effects on your Health

When you are constantly active on Facebook then there is a big possibility that you may suffer from some kind of physical and mental problems. Your eye sight becomes weak. You may suffer from back problems due to sitting in a wrong posture for a long time. Then there is always a risk of going into depression.

7 You spend the Most Energetic Days of your Lives in Lazy Entertainment

When you see the demography of the people who use Facebook, then you will find mostly teens and youngsters in their twenties. If you are out of this age group then this point doesn’t apply to you.

Teenage years and twenties are that time in your lives when there is no lack of energy in you. You are excited about the possibilities of the future. Have you ever thought why you have so much energy during these early years? Well, because these are our life making years. These are those precious few years where the chances of achieving your dreams are maximum.

There are many things to do and learn. You are under pressure to study hard and choose a good career and beat the competition.  You are also hungry to do something on your own. You want to be independent. All these things require your energy and concentration.

Unfortunately people who overuse Facebook invest this energy in the wrong place. When there are such important tasks to accomplish in life, they sit in a corner and waste the most energetic years of their lives on such unproductive tasks.

Conclusion

In the end I just want to say that Facebook is like a crowded and noisy mall, which you will like for some time, but if you spend most of your time here then you will fail to enjoy the real beauties of life.

Don’t waste your time here. Spend your energy and time in creating something valuable and amazing. When you do something valuable then not only your friends but the whole world will like you.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook