And I Thought Checking Your Facebook in the Library was Bad...

Anyone with a facebook is aware of the fact that it is customary for users to update their "friends" on the most important aspects of their lives throughout the day. 

This is all done through the use of status updates, a feature on facebook which allows me to keep tabs on pretty much what all my 557 bffs on the book are up to. Now I know when they are hungry, procrastinating studying for a test, going out and getting wasted with their "loves" and the like. Personally I don't need a facebook tab to allow me to express my feelings. Far too often I come across ones that read something along the lines of: "trying to find the meaning of life" or "searching for real love." Like I said in one of my previous posts, facebook has many great tools for keeping in touch with friends, family and acquaintances, but sometimes people go to extremes. This became evident when a man was arrested, yes arrested for stealing a womans laptop to check his facebook account. I guess he couldn't go another second without knowing if someone wrote on his wall, tagged him in a picture or perhaps he simply needed to update his status. Here's more on the story from the Sarasota Herald Tribune:

 BRADENTON, Fla. — Sheriff's officers said a 19-year-old man snatched a Starbucks customers laptop after being told he could not use it to check his Facebook account. According to officers, the man then grabbed the customer's laptop and ran out of the coffee shop, located in an outlet mall.

Two people in the parking lot tackled the man and held him there until a mall security guard arrived.

The victim got his laptop back and the man was charged Saturday with robbery by sudden snatching, a felony.

information from Sarasota Herald Tribune

Admitting it is the First Step

If you judge your popularity by the amount of facebook friends you have, incessantly update your status, or get butterflies whenever someone tags you in a picture, you may be addicted to the "social networking site." It masks itself as a medium to help you "connect and share with people in your life." But in actuality it's the culprit behind the pain in your pointer finger from clicking your mouse through countless pictures, reason you bought a blackberry and most importantly the one thing thing keeping you from being a productive human being. 

I must agree however, the site can be useful in some respect. It has allowed me to stay in contact with my friends from camp, studying abroad as well as my family in Europe. It also keeps me up to date on the important things in life like where my friends at home will be bartending this weekend or which one of my friends got drunk, lost their phone and now needs my number. But I will admit I have fallen victim to the fact that facebook can pretty much ruin your life, or at least your day by allowing you to know too much about a person and their whereabouts.

 I made the mistake of falling pretty hard for a guy I met in London, who unfortunately for me, updating his facebook status was synonomous with breathing for him. Upon my return to the U.S. I not only found out about his new study abroad fling through his status updates, but wall posts, new top friend additions and of course tagged pictures. I can easily say I was obsessed with knowing who this girl was and how he managed to move on so fast, and good ol' facebook allowed me to find out. For a good portion of Summer 2008, I embarrassingly enough allowed what I found out on facebook to have a serious effect on my mood. But I can say with confidence now that I am a recovering facebook addict, who goes on tops ten minutes a day. Nevertheless, I know there are still some of you out there. To determine your level of dependency on "the book" read through Huffingtonpost.com writer, Tara Stiles' scary, but true Top Ten Warning Signs you may be Addicted to Facebook:

1. Facebook is your home page.

2. You update your status more than twice a day.

3. You have over 500 "friends" half of whom you've never actually met.

4. As soon as you step away from your computer you're on FB on your phone.

5. You are a FB stalker. You qualify as a FB stalker if you

a) click on someone's profile more than once a day even if they haven't messaged or tagged you in a photo.

b) have dragged and dropped more than 3 FB photos (not from your own profile)

c) actually go to a place mentioned on someone's page in hopes of seeing them in real life...creepy!

6. You change your profile picture more than a 12-year=old girl.

7. You have checked your FB page while reading this article.

8. You clean up your "wall" so it looks like you spend less time on FB.

9. You are a member of more than 10 groups and respond to every event invitation "attending" even if you have no intention of going.

10. You change your relationship status just to mess with people.

read more of Stiles' article on Huffingtonpost.com

For more stories on facebook checkout:

Facebook Backs Down

Facebook's Users Ask Who Owns Information