In today’s modern world of online access, the popularity of social networking sites like “Facebook”, MySpace, and “Twitter” , have also increased.
These and other similar social networking sites have quickly become a fun and easy way to reconnect with old friends, meet new friends, rekindle old flames, or find new loves. It has become common, and sometimes even accepted practice, to have your Twitter or Facebook page open in the background while at work.
Do You Have the Symptoms of Social Networking Addiction?
There are no set rules for when, or even if, a person can really become addicted to social networking sites. However people who believe they have been affected claim the addiction is all too real. So when does enjoying a good online chat with your newest friend go from harmless fun to addiction?
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to help determine if you might have symptoms of a potential social networking addiction.
- Do you have difficulty tearing yourself away from the computer in order to deal with real life?
- Does your family and friends complain that you never seem to have time for them anymore?
- Do you make up excuses or outright lie when asked why you didn’t get a specific task completed?
- Do you use social networking sites while at work, even though it is against company policy?
- Do you prefer to be online chatting, instead of living, in the sometimes less than perfect, real world?
- Does it make you uncomfortable or nervous to go more than a few hours without checking your favorite site, or chat program?
- Are you losing sleep because you stay online until late at night?
If you answered yes to any of these questions it might be time to take a step back from the monitor and rethink things. "Dr. Joseph Garbley" a licensed psychiatrist and internist says, "Facebook addiction is becoming a very real problem". Do you really want to live in an online, make-believe world? Are your online friends more important to you than your real life friends and family?
How to Protect Yourself from Becoming an Addict
While alcoholics protect themselves from the addiction of "alcoholism" by not drinking, it probably isn’t necessary to take potential social networking dependency to such extremes. If you believe you may be behaving in an addictive manner when it comes to your social networking habits, you might want to simply take a step back from your computer, and reevaluate the things that are really important to you in your life.
Live in the real world, and leave the make believe world of online social networking for those times when you have absolutely nothing better to do than to get online and chat or play games.
Temper Your Social Networking Activities with Common Sense to Avoid an Unwanted Addiction
With the onslaught of popular social networking sites, many people are finding themselves spending more and more time online, and less time living in the real world. It is advisable to use common sense when participating in online social networking sites to avoid the potential dangers of becoming addicted.
Kelly Dupree - My love of animals, especially cats, and my interest in science has led to a serious passion to write well researched articles.
