Facebook Addiction?
December 20th, 2010
By Mary Ellen Barnes, Ph.D. & Ed Wilson, Ph.D., MAC, Drug & Alcohol Addiction Topic Expert Contributors
Click here to contact Mary Ellen and/or see her Profile
Click here to contact Ed and/or see his Profile
Because Facebook and similar “social networking” sites are a very tempting substitute for actually getting a life. All the teen angst can be successfully drowned out in the cacophony of internet posting that allow people to defer actually living for yet another day.
The reality? It’s damn hard being a young adult under the best of circumstances and the temptation to weather turbulent years in a handy storm cellar, whether it’s alcohol, pot, Facebook, or other mindless and mind dulling diversions is hard to resist, especially when all of these are peer-endorsed.
The cure? Alternative behaviors that over-ride the self-medicating ones.
As the Guru in the old joke said to the weary struggler’s question,
“What’s the meaning of life? ”
“Doin’ stuff, as opposed to death, which is not doin’ stuff.”
As with all self-destructive behaviors and self-medicating activities, the result is “not doin’ stuff”.
We often note that the alternative to traditional treatment – which is the ultimate focus on “not doin’ stuff” – is in fact, doing’ stuff.
In other words, becoming an active participant in your own life rather than a dulled spectator!
Want to leave negative habits, behaviors, and pastimes behind? Good! After all, this is the only life you’re going to get. Isn’t it time you lived it?
©Copyright 2010 by Mary Ellen Barnes, Ph.D., therapist in Rolling Hills Estates, CA. All Rights Reserved.
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Comments
My 13 year old son spends about two hours a day on social networking sites and he does sI everyday after returning from school. Although his grades are fine, he does tend to get irritated if I happen to need him during his online time. Is there a cause if concern in this case?
Facebook could be considered addiction if the time spent on FB interfered with an individuals life in a severly negative way such as not paying bills, letting your dog poop on the floor, not feeding your baby, shitting your pants.. Until then don’t sweat it. What one person believes as ‘not doin’ stuff’ another believes its ‘decompressing’ either way knock it off with the fear mongering.
Kelly, I would say you need to have a talk with you son because this is the right time to talk and he is not really ‘addicted’ to it. You need to say the right things and try to make him understand your concerns. Hope everything turn out fine. All the very best :)
it bugs me that so many kids are so tuned into what is going on online that they are unaware of the things going on in their own backyard! frustrating if you ask me
There’s a ton of great informative and educational stuff on facebook and that is what people need to be doing in addition to all the ‘likes’ an ‘dislikes’…!
Social Media addiction is growing at a fast rate. People are being more concerned about how they are perceived online that it is taking away from the real life value. Studies are also showing that online gaming on social networking sites are sucking time out of people.
I am addicted to Crackbook.
Mary, you may be interested in covering an app called iFreeFace ifreeface.com This helps stop Facebook addiction by allowing you to block it at any time, or to set limits.
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