ADDICTED TO FACEBOOK?

My Social Network Experience:

When the trend and craze of social networks took off, everybody was jumping on the bandwagon right away, except me.  Being a very reserved person who had concerns about the many security breaches in technology and my PPI (personal & private information) just floating out somewhere in cyberspace for anyone to view or misuse, I hesitated to join the frenzy.  Classmates from high school & college complained and friends & family criticized my willingness to just socially “hang out” online that I finally compromised and signed up for an account.  MySpace.com & Ning.com were the popular social networks at the time, but they were quickly phasing out due to the popularity of Facebook.  So, I thought here’s just another fad that people will be “cyber-hopping” around to join until a new network comes along.  Should I bother to invest my time again setting up an account and getting reconnected to everyone when my circle of friends, who had convinced me to join, were now “abandoning the ship” (meaning the two former networks mentioned) and switching over to Facebook? 
Reluctantly, I did make the switch and I was initially glad to reunite with old friends, lost colleagues & co-workers, and stay in touch with distant relatives.  It was nice to see pictures of their family, follow updates about their lives and get messages from them occasionally, but somewhere along the way the atmosphere of social networking seemed to change; it became more like a popularity contest.  Instead of posting noteworthy, significant events, people were trying to reconnect with “old flames,” sharing explicit photos and posting news about what they ate for breakfast!  Their posts & news feeds were cluttering up my page and it was way too time-consuming to scroll through them, to block or filter some out just to read or to respond to a select few.  It was like sifting through Spam mail on my email account!  I was bombarded with selfies, game & friend requests from people I barely knew that I began to feel like a “virtual voyeur” because I wasn’t spending countless hours a day on the network like some friends I knew.  They were intensely addicted to social networking and Facebook was highjacking their lifestyles, but it was never that serious for me.  Eventually, I was turned off from using Facebook and I resent the fact that in some ways people view you as irrelevant unless you’re frequently participating on these sites.

Although, I still maintain a presence in social media and I contribute with some groups & discussions, I mainly use my accounts for business & professional updates.  To connect with family and friends who live far away, I use Skype, Facetime and Glide, which is a live video messaging site.  In the past, I’ve used Pinterest to get creative ideas and I’m starting to slowly warm up to using Instagram, since most of the kids I know are on it.  I guess I’m just -old fashioned and I’d prefer to call, visit, email or text the people that I really want to stay in contact with.  Thank you for letting me vent!