Facebook Addiction Disorder: Is it just a F.A.D?

Addiction is undoubtedly a scourge of the human condition. Society has witnessed colossal increases in cases of addiction and misuse. For instance, in Ireland, the findings of the Health Research Board‘s most recent survey indicated that problem alcohol cases increased by almost 1,500 in a twelve month period, from 5,876 in 2006 to 7,312 in 2007.

Although many of society’s most renowned addictions such as alcoholism and drug abuse are widely accepted as valid addictions, several addictions have emerged in recent years that conjure a great deal of doubt within society. Examples of these addictions vary from an addiction to Mc Vitie’s Jaffa Cakes to an addiction to eBay bidding. However, it was an addiction to the social networking site, Facebook that caught my eye.

Children of the Digital Revolution: Do They Need Another Hero?

It was the Canadian Communications theorist, Marshall Mc Luhan, who proclaimed “It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.” Indeed, with the birth of a new medium of communication, old rules are discarded and new ones generated.

For example, news writing for print publications relies heavily on the inverted pyramid structure, placing the most important information in the opening few paragraphs. On the other hand, radio writing depends greatly on a chatty, conversational tone as well as the simplification of complex details, statistics and jargon. Sure enough, the birth of the Internet created a plethora of new rules.

In a previous post, entitled “The Internet: Are We Being Foolish with our Lives?“, we discussed the negative effects that the Internet has on our concentration and our ability to retain information for prolonged periods of time. The piece deduced that if society didn’t alter their intense relationship with the World Wide Web, the physical, mental and psychological consequences would be unalterable.