By Tony Chung on 25 March 2009 ~ Comments

Can you Resist using Facebook for a week?

facebook

I can’t. At least I’m pretty damn sure I can’t.

facebook

If you’re like me, chances are you have a shorcut or bookmark on your browser for Facebook. And if you work a 9 to 5, you probably click the link at least 5-10 times a day. Key words: “at least”. Facebook is an addiction. It’s a fact. But why?

I was thinking about this today. Why exactly do I feel the urge to open Facebook whenever I sit down at my computer? I summed up a few key reasons:

  1. Gossip. I succumb to gossip (like you) and want to know the very latest about my group of friends. ‘Hot damn… ____ is engaged???’
  2. Convenience. Facebook makes it much more convenient for me to check up on (ahem, stalk) the status of friends rather than having to make a phone call or send and instant message (especially to those I don’t communicate much with).
  3. Forums and conversations. If you participate in fan groups on Facebook, it’s fun to congregate and talk with other people that share similar interests as you. And these conversations are pretty active. Heck, President Obama’s voting day event was streamed and discussed live via Facebook.
  4. Blog your life. i.e. update your status. C’mon, you know you do it. You’re emotional or you just found out something super awesome …or maybe you just watched an amazing movie… gotta update the status to let the world know! ;)

I think it would be a fun challenge to stop using Facebook for a week if you are an addict. Cigarettes or Facebook abstinence = more difficult? ;)

Did I miss any reasons above?

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Tony Chung is a 25 year young music and web lover based in Silicon Valley. He has a BSEE, released an album in Asia, and starred in a film. This blog is about his passion for Apple products, music, and financial investing. (more...)
  • I struggle to remember to use Facebook in a week, it's a remarkably static site for a social media phenomenon. What activity there is on my profile page is updated automatically via Friendfeed and Twitter. I log in every week or so to deal with friend requests and to ignore the latest 50 or so trivial game app invitations!
  • I should really look into Friendfeed, it's quite the talk of the town these days...
  • I don't use it as much as some in terms of reading it - I have an Adobe Air app called AlertThingy that runs in the background on my desktop and pulls in my subscribed feeds, but I tend to check Twitter more often on a day to day basis. It's a really good collation tool though, and also excellent at automating your own social activity into a single feed and pushing that out to the likes of Facebook.
  • Ahmed Naguib
    Another reason is to spam your friends with Apps. and Groups requests "just for fun" or maybe poke them :) I have the ability to abandon Facebook for more than a week, just because I don't need to use it that much anyways, I can always check it once a week to reply to messages or to check what's happening with my other friends, Facebook is not really the main social network that I use, I love twitter and friendfeed, I'm addicted to both, and if I need to talk to any of my friends, I use IM :) .
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