Coming back from vacation after a week, I was invited to a friend’s party. I arrived with my bubbly nature and pleasant social skills. As soon as Gia* entered the room, I could hear light whispers, ‘Isn’t it sad, he broke-up over facebook.’

I was astonished. Gia had been engaged for over two years and had been dreaming of getting married after her graduation. I could see the sad awkward forced smile on her face, trying her best to act normal and the sorry faces of all those so-called friends who knew about her very personal life even when she had tried her best to hide it.

I have been her friend since last 5 years; I approached her and gave her a very ‘sisterly’ hug. “So you know too?” she said silently. “I just overheard some girls. I wasn’t in touch with facebook for a week.” I explained my incompetent e-social nature.

She was more astonished, “How could you survive without facebook?” I was stunned.

Apparently facebook has gained the importance of bread and butter in our young lives. The fact that I didn’t use facebook for just a ‘week’ was bigger news than her failed relationship.

That evening I stole her spotlight. I spent the entire evening explaining how I didn’t ‘die’ without checking my ‘mini feed’ or scribbling on the ‘walls’ of my friends or ‘poking my ‘boyfriend.’

Some laughed at me, others idealized my determined nature that could help me abstain from ‘social gossip.” I was given the status of Dr. Phil and was giving tips on how to refrain yourself from facebook abuse.

I spent the next day googling facebook stories. I will warn you that it is addictive, reading about the impact of facebook on everyday lives of individuals like us.

I could even find tips on ‘how to avoid being facebook friends with your boss,” “How to stalk your girlfriend on facebook (I know, pretty lame)” “how to find study partners” and what not. I realized that I had just discovered an encyclopedia on facebook use on google search.

I admit that I like checking my facebook account every 3 hours, and yes that counts as addiction but my colleague doesn’t even have a facebook account. Why? Her answer was simple, ‘privacy’ issue.

We have seen the newspapers and magazines swarming with articles over this issue, but how many of us are concerned? We packed our gear and hit the field to collect our data from youngsters of various ages in GTA.

Sameer Esmail told us that he spends about 3 hours everyday on facebook and doesn’t care about the privacy issue. He likes being connected and is ready to pay the price.

On the other hand Mr. and Mrs. Syed Naqvi were very apprehensive, they are still using only MSN to connect with friends and are not ready to give facebook a try.

Tahreem Ali, an engineering student at UofT spends about 2 hours on average on facebook. She is aware of the privacy issues and recommends only adding friends and making use of the facebook privacy settings, ‘Block the people that you don’t know and stick with your own circle of friends.’

We also wanted to know the perspective of parents on this issue. Children are spending too much time trying to take useless quizzes on facebook without knowing that a third party has taken their consent to use their personal information. 

Talking with Tanveer Randhawa, a grade 7 student, Harpreet Ranu Grade 5 and Arshdeep Ranu, we found out that they are logged on to facebook the entire day, “We like uploading pictures on facebook.” What did their parents have to say about this? Well, not much. They have allowed them to make use of ‘technology’ in their lives and are kind of proud that kids this young know how to use computer technology with such dexterity.

On the other hand, Mr. and Mrs. Bilkhu don’t like facebook at all. They like e-shopping and text messaging but think that there is no privacy left because of growing use of social networks like facebook.

Marissa Layton, assistant VP of Citibank makes use of facebook as well. She logs on once a week to check the updates. Well, is she keeping an eye on the employees or using it for personal matters? I leave the conclusion to the stories about impact of facebook on workplace life that I googled earlier.

Taha , Zafir and Asjad, students at University of Waterloo are facebook addicts as well.

Nayha Rizvi was one individual who made a face at the mention of facebook, “I hate it, its too open!” Her friends Samana Zamin and Maha Rizvi on the other hand consider her an outcast and boost that they spend more than 10 hours on facebook (how? I couldn’t figure out) they like leaving comments on pictures and talking to friends and think that the debates about privacy issue are overrated.

We heard various views from various people but majority of them are consumers of facebook. It has crept into our lives and gained immense importance.

Are you are facebook addict as well? Share your facebook story with us at www.sagennext.com

 Author: Saniya Zahid