FACEBOOK: Friend or Foe?

Last week's earthquake got me thinking: if something were to happen to my house in a natural disaster and I had only moments to grab my most valuable possessions, what would I grab? A few things came to mind, including my blue-haired alter ego doll, Matilda, and my jar of foreign currency from countries I will most likely never visit again, but these were all afterthoughts compared to the first thought that bombarded my consciousness: if my house was ruined in an earthquake, would my facebook be alright? Yes, I know that might seem like a silly thing to be dwelling on in the middle of a natural disaster, but when one's life revolves around a social networking website as addicting as Facebook, the worry is understandable.

Pathetically or not, I think of nearly every aspect of my life in terms of how it would appear on my Facebook homepage. When I find myself in a social setting, I often catch myself nervously scanning the room for cameras and then jumping/lurking in as many pictures as possible, with the hope of being tagged in what will inevitably become a wittily-titled album the next day. Whenever someone says something funny, I mentally take note and plan to add it to my "Favorite Quotes" section of my page. What concerns me most, though, is the all-important profile picture. I spend countless hours at my computer, trying to decide on a picture of me that is the perfect combination of flattering and funny. After all, this picture is what potential friends will see when they are deciding if they want to add me to their friends list -- it's got to be good.

Worse, though, is the fact that I am unable to compartmentalize my life so that I am able to do other work instead of looking on Facebook to see if anyone wrote on my wall. While I used to be able to sit down and do my math homework without the worry of being interrupted by anything, I now find myself sitting, notebook in hand, at my computer. I'll do a problem, then open up the web browser and navigate to Facebook, all almost completely unwittingly.

In short, Facebook has entirely taken over my life. YES, I am completely aware of this fact. And NO, I am not doing anything about it. In fact, while writing this blog post, I have checked for new Facebook photo albums no less than three times.

PEACE.