Are We Too Obsessed With Facebook?

Written by Jessica Leeman

Mashable: WFacebook profiles are like bellybuttons everyones got one!

There seems to be no end to the worlds obsession of with social media sites, and the various ways in which they keep us glued to our computer screens. We are constantly checking our Facebook newsfeeds, on our laptops, phones, iPads basically any form of technology with access to the internet! We log on to see what are friends are doing, to update our status with our latest thoughts/feelings/actions, to tend to our crops on Farmville, or to upload photographs from the night before.Over the last few years, countless surveys and studies have been carried out in the hope that experts will be given an insight into just why we love Facebook so much (the social networking site currently has over 800 million active users all over the globe). So, what is it about Facebook that we just can'tseem toget enough of? Is it that we can chat to friends (or that guy at work youve been flirting with for weeks) whenever and wherever we may be? Perhaps it's that we can nosey at a family members holiday snaps, or see what our old school friends are doing with their lives now (married with kids? Divorced? Business tycoon?).It was reported that during the weekend of the New Year alone, 750 million photographs were uploaded to Facebook. Results from various studies focused on why more and more people are becoming obsessed with social networking have revealed that when we talk about ourselves on Facebook or Twitter, we are in fact, activating the same part of our brain which is activated when we eat food and receive money. According to certain studies, self-disclosure seems to be the inherent reward for having spent large amounts of our time on these sites. Does this go to prove just how self-conscious we are as individuals? And, by self-disclosing and self-praising are we merely attempting to get people to like us?On average, Facebook users have never met around 12% of the friends. Women tend to have significantly larger network of Facebook 'friends', and spend more time 'managing' their profiles. Some experts believe the amount of time we spend on social media sites is having a negative effect on our communication with friends and peers. Arguing that users are actually opting to communicate online, as opposed to face-to-face.

The Ugly Side of FacebookIn the Western world, Facebook (along with Twitter and Tumblr) has become a huge part of teenagers and young adults daily routine. The notion of round-the-clock connectivity has enticed hoards of people to sign up to site over the past few years. Thoughts, feelings, and photographs are shared with friends, family members, colleagues, and peers. Members can use Facebook to re-connect with former classmates, workmates, or simply friends with whom they had lost contact. This kind Facebook of is generally harmless and fun.There is an ugly side to Facebook, however. For some people, the site is slowly starting to replace certain aspects of their real lives (their offline life).In some cases, users connect with total strangers and thus their real-life friendships and interactions with others are being replaced.Often, Facebook users are unaware of the dangers of the internet, dangers such as the hacking of accounts and stealing of personal information.Third parties have the ability to access users profiles to implement viruses. This can be extremely dangerous as these parties can then access information such asbank details.Users may think they are downloading a game, when in fact they could be opening up their computer to someone who can observe their bank statements, passwords, and other personal information on stored and saved within their home computer.

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