With the advent of the internet, the process of communication and social networking underwent major changes. It became much easier for individuals to link up with each other both by text chatting and by audiovisual ways. Social networking websites such as Facebook came up to help individuals trace and regain contact with friends with whom they had lost contact. Facebook has been described as a basic directory on the internet which had originally been designed to help college students connect with each other via various social networks established in their respective schools (Baron, 2009). Since its inception over six years ago, the site has spread rapidly to a point where it can boast of over thirty million users spread over different walks of life.
Unfortunately, Facebook was designed in such a way that it requires individuals to constantly log in to their accounts in order to check whether they have received messages or establish new friendships by responding to friend requests (Cohen, 2009).
Facebook in particular has received a lot of following particularly from young adults especially since it provides a platform for creating social groups among individuals irrespective of the distance between them. As it is, this networking site has led to some form of addiction with college students dedicating a lot of their time on the site chatting and viewing friends’ photos. The situation has become so critical that various health care professionals have launched investigations into the medical problems associated with the Facebook addiction.
Research into the problem
A recent research conducted at the school of medicine in Stanford University came to the conclusion than one out of every American citizens exhibited symptoms internet addiction and that the treatment of such addiction was no different than the treatment of drug junkies (Hayes, 2010). The head of the study Dr. Elias Aboujaoude described the internet addiction as one that causes the patient to always want to get online even when they are not particularly looking for anything (Dickey, 2007). This was well equated with the impulsive drive to partake in an a pleasurable activity associated with drug and hard drug addiction. Like with other forms of addiction, internet/Facebook addiction also leads to problems at both a personal and professional level. This brings about challenges that can negatively intrude in a person’s life.
According to Dr. David Greenfield of the Center for internet studies, students have come to testify that they tend to spend a lot of time on Facebook at the expense of their studies. It however has not been established whether such an addiction is a medical problem on its own or it is a manifestation of indwelling psychological challenges such as depression (Fenichel, 2009).
One study trying to establish the impact of Facebook addiction on the performance of college going students surveyed a total of 217 students from a United States college. Individuals were subjected to both open and closed question and answer sessions (Fenichel, 2009).. It was concluded that individuals who regularly spent time on Facebook performed poorly in school.
The research also established that individuals who did not use Facebook regularly dedicated more time to working for pay as their counterparts spent time engaging in extracurricular activities. Most of the regular Facebook users believed that the habit did not have a genuine negative effect on their lives. this was the position even with most of them confessing to having developed time management challenges as a result of spending a lot of time on Facebook (Dickey, 2007).
Facebook addiction can be described by a number of symptoms including the constant urge to get online , dedicating very many hours to chatting and going through people’s profiles on Facebook, unending talks about knowledge acquired from Facebook, giving up important activities in order to spend time on Facebook as well as the continual resignation to Facebook temptations even when it is clear that this is problematic (Hayes, 2010).
According to netaddiction.com females are more likely to be addicted to Facebook’s chatting application and this leads them to develop conditions such as insomnia and depression associated to large amounts of time spent in this activity.
How companies and educational facilities are dealing with the issue
Companies and educational facilities have come to point out Facebook addiction as a serious threat to performance in their institutions. This is because of the negative effect of procrastination that regular Facebook usage can lead to. As such usage of the networking site has been banned in many enterprises. To ensure that workers and students don’t fall to the temptation, various firewall software have been used to block access to the website (Baron, 2009). Some institutions have even made it a point to note in their company laws that Facebook access during office hours is an offence that could lead to job termination. Scholars have however suggested that this type of ban could in the long-run be detrimental to the general growth of companies mainly because it has been established that many clients turn to Facebook when looking for bargains on products or service provision experts.
Summary and recommendations
The creators of Facebook may have had good intentions when they first launched the site. However, like anything good, Facebook has its weakness top on the list being the addictive tendencies. College students have particularly been proven to be more vulnerable to this sort of addiction. Even though, it has not been established as a medical condiction, current research leans towards the suggestion that addiction to social networking sites has its own trailer challenges including illnesses such as depression (Cohen, 2009).
Various recommendations have been made on how to handle cases of Facebook addiction. However, it must be noted that getting out of any habit mainly depends on the will of the person. Individuals must first have the desire to quit excessive Facebook usage (Baron, 2009). Effort should then be made to ensure that a strict time management is developed to enable the individual distinguish clearly what should be done and at what time. It is definitely advisable that the schedule include at least a few hours to login to Facebook because at the end of the day the aim is not to put the person in total isolation.
The college should definitely employ the usage of Facebook blocking firewall software particularly in classroom and library computers. This will help students concentrate on assigned tasks as it will make it impossible to give in to the urge of accessing the Facebook website.
It is also recommended that the college invests in provision of time management sessions to students with the aim of instilling a culture of discipline amongst the students. This is in appreciation of the fact that at the end of the day, an individual can give up an addiction as long as he/she is committed to dropping the habit.
A graphic showing the growth spurt in the Facebook addiction amongst young individuals
(Source: Web.).
Facebook usage statistics
References
Baron, D. (2009). Internet addiction: deadly pathology or just a nice substitute for TV? Web.
Cohen, E. (2009). Five clues that you are addicted to Facebook. Web.
Dickey, M. (2007). New internet danger: Unhealthy obsession (2/07). Web.
Fenichel, M. (2009). Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD). Web.
Hayes, C. (2010). Irish politician believes Facebook addiction causes mental health issues. Web.