Facebook-Addiction

It's a little ironic that when I finish this Hub I'll probably post it to my Facebook profile. This shows the hold that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have over us. We no longer call our friends and discuss things, we simply post a Facebook message and let people comment.

Not only that, casual games, that used to be predominantly games like Bejewelled, Chuzzles etc has evolved. Yes, you can still play the old classics, but a whole new generation of interactive casual game that require maintenance such as Farmville, Castle Quest etc have popped up. And while a lot of people have fun playing these games, the companies that make them are rolling in cash thanks to users buying 'elite' products, or simply clicking on the advertising.

I'm not adverse to these games, but wonder how much damage it is doing to us, and wonder whether we should do anything to alleviate the problems now before they become dangerous.

I shouldn't pick on just Facebook, it's the whole gaming world that is becoming addictive - teenagers around the globe sit in front of their consoles for hours and play games; at least the games are becoming more interactive, and with the likes of Project Natal, and Games like Wii Fit at least there is some ground being made against the dangers of not exersizing.

There have been cases in Japan where players of World of Warcraft have actually died playing the game (See link to the article on the right) - the causes are mostly due to dehydration and lack of food, but it does highlight the dangers.

Recently I finished a book in the Pendragon series (a fantasy series for young teens) which took place in a world where every lived in a virtual world and effectively the whole world became neglected - is this where we are heading?

Games and Social Websites are infiltrating our lives and are threatening to take over - every major company has a presence on Facebook and Twitter, and many people continue to use the web sites at work, costing the whole world exonomy billions. 

Before I continue let's explore where the current craze for social sites came from.

From Wikipedia:

"The term "Web 2.0" (2004–present) is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design,and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them."

There's no doubt that the underlying principles of Web 2.0 and in particular the 'interactive information sharing' and 'user-centered design' is excellent, however, as has been seen with wikepedia, there are inherent dangers of giving over complete control to the users; many users of the web simply beleive everything they read - so site owners have a responisibilty to ensure that their content is correct despite the open-ness of Web 2.0.

However, perhaps more importantly should web site owners be responsible for the well-being of their users? This is a difficult question to answer; personally I feel they should. Cigarette manufacturers around the world are being heavily critisized and sued for including addictive substances in their product; in a similar way, these website owners know that certain easpects of Web 2.0 is addicting and therefore they should have some forum in which to help people who become addicted - it's difficult to actually sue a web based company, but I would not be surprised if there was a class action suite eventually.

Is this going over the top? In my humble opinion it isn't. In the real world we are defended from predatory companies and have civil rights - we simply do not have those on the web - any web site can mostly do what they want to entice you to come back to their site - in fact their business relies on you returning.

Facebook isn't the only website that has inherent dangers, and it's only part of the problem. It's such a popular website though that most people can identify with it and the inherent dangers. Here are some of the potential dangers I see:

Addiction

Hands up those people who are reading this page that have checked their farm, or done one more quest on Castle Age? Even games like Bejewelled Blitz can be addictive - I've found myself playing just 'one more game' to beat my high score and ending up playing the game at 1:00am in the morning - I even wrote a page about the game!

Loss of 'Real' friend

What is interesting now is that many friendships are being 'run' on Facebook. You find out about someone's day by reading their daily entries - you make comments on their day and you spend time doing quizzes about yourself and your friends. The whole concept of going out with friends and spending quality time with them has gone out the window and friendship has become virtual.

Relationship Problems

There are two (probably a lot more) problems I see with the way Web 2.0 and Facebook can effect a relationship.

• If someone spends four to five hours on the web playing games and updating comments etc, then there's no doubt that a relationship between a loving couple will be affected; the lack of quality time between a couple cannot be a good thing.
• Meeting new friends and old acquantences - one of the cool aspects of Web 2.0 is that it is possible to meet new and interesting people, as well as finding old buddies from School. The dangers are that these can turn into flirtatious relationships and more. Now Facebook isn't causing this, and this can happen in real life too, but it makes it easier.

Productivity

This is more of a concern for companies, but I know of several people in my workplace that spend at least half an hour updating Facebook or keeping in contact with online friends either via Web 2.0 methods or via email. If everyone in my firm did this, then that about 9,000 hours of lost production or potentially $500,000 lost revenue (just a guesstimate) - add that up for the whole year and that comes to $130,000,000 lost revenue per year - and that's just one company!

I've focused on the negative sides of Web 2.0 so far, but given time the benefits of Web 2.0 will probably outweigh the negatives. Some arease that have to be improved are:

Addiction - more has to be done to help people break the cycle of addiction that is happening - there are a lot of amazing uses for Web 2.0, such as allowing families around the world to keep in contact and be more aware of each others lives, but addiction is a problem that will not go away. I don't think there is a twelve step programme, but Website designers and owners have to become more socially aware of the damage thier sites are doing, and do something to combat this damage.

Relationships - well this is really down to the couple in question - the only way to solve this problem is for the couple to interact more - whether they make more use of the beneficial aspects of Web 2.0, or set a schedule where they both can use Web 2.0, but then turn the computer off and have real time quality time together.

Productivity - I don't think Web 2.0 is going away and there's always going to be some loss of productivity due to it. However, Web 2.0 also presents plenty of opportunity for companies to increase efficiency and productivity (telecommuting, interactive online meetings, content sharing etc.) that should offset any loss due to the social aspect of social sites - in fact, the social aspect could be used to the advantage of the company and become an important add-on to the practice of 'networking'.

Web 2.0 and social websites are not going away, in fact the whole world is beginning to embrace this new use of the web. We have to be aware of the inherent dangers of Web 2.0 and ensure that all that can be done to make it safe and useful is done.

This requires collaboration between governments, companies and the general Website community and is a huge task. Each of us will play a little part in it, and the beauty of Web 2.0 is that it is socially driven so that if enough of us don't like a certain aspect of Web 2.0 then we can change it.

The key, as in anything, is moderation. MOderate your use of website like this, don't allow them to control you and eventually they'll move away from the addictive elements and provide us with the beneficial elemenets - as Sergeant Phil Esterhaus used to say "Hey, let's be careful out there"