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JAYPLAY = 12.06.2007
From your parents to your professors to your old preschool playmates, more than 55 million people have claimed their page of Facebook, and according to the Internet marketing research company comScore, each user is getting in an average of 20 minutes of Face-time per day.
"It can mess with your identity, especially at a stage in life when you're just starting to form an identity, like during college," says James Houran, a Dallas-based clinical psychologist who specializes in online relationships.
Here, a glimpse beyond Facebook's face value at the mental appeal and effects of what great minds have dubbed "Internet crack."
WHY YOU'RE HOOKED
Be it baseball cards or beer bottles, humans love collecting, and Facebook lets you collect what poets praise as priceless: friends. Mark McKinley, professor of psychology at Lorain County Community College in Ohio, says a collection of any kind represents a quest, and the collector is often in pursuit of security, a way
Onitsjourney from a procrastination tool exclusively for U.S. college students to a global socializing phenomenon, Facebook has raised some tough questions of privacy and ethics, and users' Facebook faux pas—disreputable photos, offensive wall posts have drawn national attention. Yet something that remains largely under the radar in this nirvana of networking is the mental effects of spending time in a vacuum of uninhibited communication and self-disclosure that's full of boundless information about the people around you.
A nationwide study published in February reported that today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than previous generations, and researchers partly attributed these new attitudes to sites like Facebook, where each of us can become the center of a simulated universe. Staples says, however, that adding a page to the Book points more toward a social expectation for college students than self-
to fill an emotional void, or even a way to achieve distinction, fame or notoriety. Collecting Facebook friends, like any other collection, is characterized by comparing your stock to others', and more always means better.
Tim Phillippe, Forth Worth, Texas freshman, says amassing Facebook friends is probably a way some students boost their self-esteem. "I've met people who instantly want to be Facebook friends when I've spoken one or two words to them," Phillippe says. "When I see these people have 800 friends, I think they may not have a lot of close friends, so they're trying to feel secure by having hundreds of Facebook friends."
Way back when (oh,four years ago), close interaction and time were usually necessary to find out someone's favorite books, his or her relationship status or political views. But with Facebook, you can now dig into all this and more without ever having to speak face-to-face.
John Grohol, a Boston-based psychologist and publisher of the online mental health network Psych Central, says this ability to instantly access someone's personal information without any effort to get to know him or her desensitizes our awareness of and response to valuable details about people. Instead, every behavior becomes a generic, bland fact with no relevance to your relationship with the person. "We feel like it's bringing us closer to the person, but this is an artificial connection," Grohol says. "Finding out that you're going to the airport or you're up all night studying—those are factual pieces of info about
Facebook also plays on our desire to disclose information about ourselves and also dig into what others are disclosing. "In today's culture, we like to see ourselves and see others—a combination of exhibitionism and voyeurism. Facebook is the perfect example of how these two come together," says Bill Staples, department chair and professor of sociology at KU. Staples, who researches the connections between technology and voyeurism, says the desire to broadcast information about ourselves is a significant departure from the attitudes of our parents, who are more guarded concerning their personal lives.
absorption. "We want to put ourselves out there because we want to participate. If you're not there, it's like you don't exist," he says."In a sense, you're seduced into being on it whether you want to or not, and it may turn out to be kind of oppressive."
Sarah Kirk, director of KU Psychological Services, says Facebook is appealing because it allows us to keep a tabloid-like eye on the people we know, while also living like our private lives are fascinating enough to merit page six coverage. "It matches our culture," Kirk says. "We all know everything that Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are doing, so then when our own privacy is taken away, we don't always think about that as negative."
YOU THINK YOU KNOW...
your life, but they're without context. You have all this information,but you're not able to validate it like you would if you were actually communicating with the person face-to-face."
And although Facebook seems an authentic paradise of knowledge, the site actually creates more questions than it gives answers. "You never get the whole story when you learn about something or someone through Facebook," says clinical psychologist James Houran. "You may feel you know a person online and you only know a part of them—not all of them—and that can be awkward then in person, because you don't know what part of them you know."
For self-proclaimed Facebook addict Caitlin Nowlin, Riverton junior, the site has led to some uncomfortable moments on campus. "I definitely have Facebook friends that I'm not friends with on campus," Nowlin says. "It's just like seeing someone you don't even know, but it's a little awkward because you feel like you should know them."
Not only are some things better left off Facebook for the sake of your own pride and privacy, but the well-being of an entire community can take a hit from too much information."The more info you have about people, the more it can promote negative behaviors like rumor-spreading that kill groups and communities," Houran says.
Being overloaded with info on how others are living their lives isn't good for your own mental well-being, either. "Knowing too much about people is never a good thing," Houran says. "It tends to increase peer pressure, and you tend to be a follower, not a leader." He also says that finding out on Facebook that
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