Cristina Matasaru

Addiction is a strong word, but I think for many people out there it’s the right one. Myself included. There, I said it. How did I get here, you might wonder? I will tell you how: step by step. One day at a time, one friend that really isn’t my friend at a time, one app at a time, one picture at a time… I like to think of myself as a mature young woman, I have a full time job in a serious institution, and yet I find myself in this pickle.

My initial plan was honorable, I will tell you! I thought facebook will help me stay in touch with my friends back home, that was the ONLY reason I joined in the first place.  That purpose is being served, I suppose, but not at the level I thought it would be. We look at each other’s pictures and post silly, irrelevant comments, and so who needs actual conversations?!? WOW, what a great time saver! And so much fun, too! (*sarcasm*) 

Soon after opening my account, the snowball effect started: I wasn’t very disciplined and I started adding people that I barely knew, just because I was curious to see what they’re up to, who they hang out with, what weddings they’ve been to, are they married etc. These are people that I would never approach face to face, though. Such curiosity is a bad thing, it’s kind of like reading tabloids. I was able to stick to one rule, though: if I have no idea who a person is, I won’t accept them as a friend, even if they’re friends with my family members or my entire hometown. At least that much…  

How about those addictive games? I only played 2 of them, not counting the occasional arcade style games: Happy Farm (NOT Farmville - note the difference, please) and Yoville. Harmless, right? NO. I spent way too much time on those games, tending to my crops, stealing from my neighbours (hey, everybody did!), decorating my apartment, baking cookies etc. For some strange reason though, about a month or so ago I just suddenly stopped playing. I didn’t make the decision to stop after a long thought process, I just stopped. Thank God for that! Unnecessary stress went out the window. (The stress of being at work when my crops are ready and knowing that my friends will get to them first if I don’t play. I sure am glad that’s over!)

The apps were quite overwhelming as well. Collect hearts, collect smiles, give hugs, Romanian gifts, Irish gifts, girls’ gifts, all gifts, pick the photo of the day, friend of the day, quote of the day, your daily luck, how good/bad are you today… and then the quizzes! Oh, noooooooooooooooooo! These may be fun at first, but they get old really fast. 

In an effort to cleanse my wall from all random junk, I started blocking apps from posting on there. I also started blocking some hyperactive facebook enthusiasts that were pretty much spamming my wall. I am cancelling all e-mail notifications - just seeing them on facebook will be enough, I don’t need them to flood my inbox.

I started deleting some non-friends (acquaintances): people that I know are on facebook just to see other people’s profiles and pictures but they don’t put any pictures on theirs (Hey, you’re curious about me but I’m curious about you, too!), or people that I know I will not talk to in person (because really, we don’t know each other, we only know OF each other… if that). These are the easier ones, but I still have some difficulty with deleting other people, because I’m afraid of hurting their feelings. Or of them thinking I’m some kind of stuck-up person. Or something like that.

Right now, the truth is that I spend way too much time on facebook, because there’s always something/someone new. I thought that if I get a smart phone with a built in facebook app, I’d be satisfied with just using that. Well, I love my Cliq but I still go on facebook on the computer. I don’t spend as much time on it, but it’s not like I was able to completely eliminate it either.  I just have another way to get to it. Yay.

The truth is simple: facebook became this time consuming, privacy invading monster only because I allowed it to. I don’t want to give it up completely because I do see a benefit in it, but I am definitely downsizing. It’s a work in progress.

I’ll go post this on facebook now.