5 Stages Of Facebook Addiction

I wrote the following piece back in October 2007. I had been on Facebook for half a year at that point. Looking back it, I see it's most still acurate.
I would add a little more recent info about cell phones though. We no longer need to go home to log into Facebook. We can access it on our phones, or just log in at work (if you don't have that site blocked at work of course). >br> I think most of what I wrote is still pertinent though. So take a read and see what you think.


5 STAGES OF FACEBOOK ADDICTION

With Facebook being such a common word these days, I did a little soul searching and found I have gone through 5 stages of Facebook addiction thus far.
These stages, from what I gather, may be specific to my age group, since part of the stages involves searching for old high school friends.
Those who are a lot younger may have found stage 4 clumped in with stage 2 from my list, but only because your friends may include a lot of high school friends still.

Anyway, here are the 5 major stages I've gone through:

Stage 1 - Experimenting - This is the first stage where you are just getting to know what Facebook is all about. You will add a few friends, and maybe a few applications as well. It's fun, but you're not yet into it full time. This stage is a crap shoot for how long you last in it. There are too many factors to list.

Stage 2 - Addiction - This is when you start adding friends like crazy (and searching through your other friend's lists for people you know so you can them as friends too), and you're catching up with old friends you haven't seen for years.
You are messaging friends, poking friends, superpoking friends, and joining groups. You are intrigued by the pictures people have on their Facebook profiles, and spends time looking through people's photo albums. This stage usually means you are spending every waking moment on Facebook.
This stage will last anywhere from 2 weeks, to 2 months.

Stage 3 - Coasting - You've now been on Facebook a while, and your friend list isn't growing exponentially anymore. You will log into Facebook a few times a day to check pokes, check messages, and do a few house-keeping activities.
You may spend the odd long session, but you've over-Facebooked yourself in stage 2, so you aren't as fanatical anymore.

Stage 4 - High School - This is the stage where your friend list starts to gather some older momentum. You may happen to find an old high school friends, and your addiction start anew. You keep finding old high school friends and adding them. You also send out pretty much the same message to all of them: "Hey, how have you been? It's been like XX years since I saw you. What have you been up to? Married? Do you have kids? Where are you working these days? We should get together for some drinks soon."
So each of those messages will go back and forth a few times, after which you probably haven't messaged that person again since.
This stage is likely your 2nd addiction, and lasts slightly shorter than stage 2, anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks.

Stage 5 - Complacency - You now have way too many friends in your list, and keeping up with everyone will never happen.
You poke people daily, and they poke you back.
You have tons of applications, most of which you've only used once or twice. Though, you now have 2 or 3 applications which you spends a lot of time on....maybe Scrabulous, Trivia of some sort, Superpoking etc.
You start leaving some of the 35 groups you've joined, realizing some of them are just plain stupid, and serve no purpose.
At this stage you are not really addicted, but Facebook has become a part of your daily routine. You don't necessarily crave it, and you may find you have the urge to get home quick so you can log into Facebook.


That's It! So as I mentioned earlier, this was from almost 5 years ago. Cell phones have come a long way obviously, and there may be a few minor differences in my list, but it's pretty much the same for the most part.




Laterz