Wherefore art thou so glorious, Facebook?

WHAT in the world is the deal with Facebook?

(Why did my spell checker just tell me that Facebook is a valid word, but only if I capitalize it?)

I want to know the answer to something. Why is Facebook so addicting? I mean, everyone has it nowadays. What's the glow around this thing that our lives now revolve around? Not to say I don't partake in its magical awesomeness, but why does it have to be essential?

I noticed a little while ago that people are starting to get a little maniacal on this famous website. If they send you a message or post on your wall and you don't respond in the next hour they start to wonder if you're even alive any more. Or maybe you're ignoring them! Maybe you don't want to be friends any more! They start to wonder about you.

What is it about technology that fascinates us all the time? First it was the computer itself. It was so neat. It was like a typewriter, but better somehow. It could erase and type over the spot on the page again and still look neat, rather than you having to throw out your messy, inky page that only has one letter missing and carefully insert another around the gears.

The next big thing was what? Floppy disks. Then came compact disks and CD players. After that was the MP3 player and the iPod. Cell phones came in somewhere in that mix as well, starting out being big, then getting smaller, now they're growing again. Apple is becoming the next big thing even though it sucks. It's all because it's new and shiny. People follow and crave whatever looks the most interesting. What causes interest? NEW stuff. Stuff you haven't seen before.

I figure that's what Facebook has also. People are always changing their statuses, posting photos, videos, random information about themselves that no one really needs to know in the first place... And for some reason we crave this new information that we don't need. It's so addictive and it's taking over people's lives. They treasure talking to people via Facebook messages and completely ignore each other in person.

I know some people that use it in different ways as well. They use the site to check up on people who they're too afraid to talk to in person. They like the looks of someone they see around at school, so the first thing they do is look that person up on Facebook to check if they're single, rather than going up and introducing themselves to make a new friend.

Not cool. That's called stalking.

Yes, I have been guilty of it at times, but I have stopped now because I realize that there are much more important things. Like human relationships. Interactive ones. Ones that involve real people, in real life. This, my friends, is why I have decided I need a break from Crackbook. Oops, I mean Facebook. (Sorry, that was a horrible joke.)

I'm staying off that site completely for the next week at least. Maybe even longer. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, over and out.

-Manda