facebook junkie

By now you’ve undoubtedly been tagged at least once for that “25 Random Things About Me” Facebook note that has spread across the social networking sphere like some kind of self-revelatory virus. Love it or hate it, its rapid proliferation is unprecedented in social networking’s young history — Facebook reports that nearly 5 million notes were created by its users during the week of January 26 through February 2, which was more than double the amount from the previous week and more than any other week in the company’s history.

But still, no one seems to be able to get to the bottom of who actually started it, or why Facebook users are suddenly so enamored with this particular means of sharing both intensely personal and highly mundane details about themselves with hundreds of friends and acquaintances in their news feeds. “We don’t have specific data on the types of Notes users are creating, but we think this growth has a strong correlation to the sharing of the 25 Random Things About Me Note,” wrote Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker in an email message. “Other types of content, like photos or news stories, have spread rapidly and widely on Facebook, but this is the first time I’ve noticed a Note gain such distribution.”

Complete story here.

Here is a cool youtube video about Facebook Addiction

More and more people seem to become addicted to Social Media networks, specially facebook. What is it that makes us stare at those blue profiles on facebook so much?, is it a spell?.

Facebook has a great user experience overall compared to the other Social Media hubs, for example hi5 is full of crappy apps, overformatted user profiles that scream out at you and a bunch of kids just looking for attention. One of the features I like most about facebook is that you can't change your profile layout & colors, some people find this annoying but it keeps things really slick.

So you go ahead and tell us, why is facebook so addictive for you? leave us a comment....

10. You feel popular when someone "tags" you in a photo (it shows others that you do actually get out).
9. The mini-feed was a hot topic of discussion for a while among your friends.
8. You think "poking" is a valid form of flirting.
7. You have Facebook "friends" that you've never met in person.
6. As soon as you meet someone in real life, you go home to search for them on Facebook.
5. You feel cheated now that everyone can join.
4. You have pressured someone to join just so you can "friend" them.
3. You think your image is controlled by your profile picture.
2. You've created a group and evangelized everyone to join.
1. You think that wishing someone "happy birthday" on their wall is sufficient.

And as a bonus...

0. You want to be the first Facebook dating "success story."

Here are some tips to avoid becoming a facebook junkie:

1. Keep a list of your Facebook schedule (if you have one) and your non-Facebook goals with you and in front of you at all times.
2. Once you've discovered your capacity for being addicted to Facebook, you should probably avoid other social networking sites like MySpace.
3. As with any task that involves discipline, it always helps to do it with a friend. One option is to have a trusted family member or friend do this for you.
4. For those who found out you can re-activate your account, try this before you de-activate your account: Open up notepad and type in some random text (lskdjfd). Login to Facebook and change your password. Copy the text that you just typed in notepad in the password fields and change your password. Deactivate your account, and clear your clipboard history.
5. If you are looking for a way to actively decrease the frequency of your Facebook visits, change your password to a long string of numbers. Write this down on a piece of paper, and place it somewhere that is annoying to reach or out of reach. This way, whenever you want to log on, you will need to dig out the paper for your password. This is to deter you from logging on by making it a chore. If you start to remember the numbers, just repeat the process.
6. To keep updated about your Facebook friends' status updates, subscribe to your friends' status updates RSS feed in your email program or other RSS reader that you already use. For example, you can get this feed in MS Outlook 2007 where you can read what your friends are up to along with your email. This eliminates one major reason people regularly log in to Facebook.

1. Work has become a nice break from Facebook, rather than the other way round.

2. When you're not on Facebook, you're trawling the internet for a new job as you're convinced you'll be sacked for excessive Facebooking very soon.

3. The first thing you think when you are fired for excessive Facebooking is, 'Great, now I can spend more time on Facebook.'

4. You've become a Facebook pusher. "Try it once, you'll love it..." you say to networking virgins.

5. You obsessively check your friends'/ex-boyfriends'/total strangers' list of friends to see if they have more than you. And if they do...

6. ...you become a friend thief. Who cares if you don't know them? All's fair in love and Facebook war...

7. The last time you had any intimate contact was when you were 'poked' by some guy you haven't seen for two years. Actual sex is so last century.

8. You've just spent the last hour looking at photos of someone you don't even know.

9. When it comes to meeting people, if they're not 'on' they're not worth bothering with. Who needs real friends when you're trying to reach the elusive 150 mark with your virtual ones?

10. You forget your best friend's birthday but you figure she'll be perfectly happy if you 'gift' her a cocktail and a Happy Birthday balloon.

11. You've had three group invites this morning but seem to be having yet another quiet night in tonight.

12. You turn down a night out at the pub quiz to play Scrabulous. Its a game, you're playing it with a friend and having a drink while you do it. What's the difference?

13. When it comes to solving real-life problems, your Magic 8 Ball application has made decision making easy. So what if you were in love with the guy it told you to dump? Plenty more fish in the Facebook sea...

14. You haven't had a food fight for ten years but now your day isn't complete until you've thrown something at a friend. It's a sign of affection, you know.

15. You're dreading your holiday because you can't face going cold turkey.

Cool video from Videojug.com

Here are some signs that you need to spend less time on Facebook:

• changing your profile picture over and over
• updating your status more than once an hour
• accessing Facebook through a mobile device
• having too many profile applications
• using Facebook terms in your normal vocabulary

Or maybe are just not spending enough :)