Teens Banding Together to Cut Down on Facebook
There?s
no doubt that for many of us, Facebook consumes a goodly proportion of
our time; on average, we spend 5 percent of our time online. For some
teenagers, time spent on the 350 million-strong social network has gone
beyond time spent and into time sunk. It?s prompted a spate of young
users to devise ways of cutting down, taking breaks or simply
deactivating their accounts altogether, according to The New York Times.
Some
are even banding together to provide social support for curtailing the
Facebook (Facebook) obsession. Two teens at San Francisco University
High School, Hally Lamberson and Monica Reed, made a pact to only log
in on the first Saturday of every month. Ann Arbor, Michigan, sophomore
Neeka Salmasi enlisted her sister to change her Facebook password for
her every Sunday evening and not give the new credentials back to her
until the following Friday.
Other
strategies include giving up Facebook for Lent, ?punishing? Facebook
usage breaches with embarrassing Wall messages, deactivating an account
temporarily or going cold turkey for the entire senior year after Facebook
proved too distracting during college applications. Psychology
professionals and school administrators alike acknowledge that usage of
the social network can all too easily reach problematic levels of
distraction. Dr. Kimberly Young, director of the Center for Internet
Addiction Recovery, said she?s worked with dozens of teens trying to
break the habit: ?It?s like any other addiction? it?s hard to wean
yourself.?
Author
and teacher Rachel Simmons credits the new Facebook Live Feed format
with exacerbating an already addictive online medium: ?You?re getting a
feed of everything everyone is doing and saying. You?re literally
watching the social landscape on the screen, and if you?re obsessed
with your position in that landscape, it?s very hard to look away.?
Do
you or someone you know have a preferred strategy for limiting the time
you spend on Facebook? Do the parents out there have any guidelines
they use to help teens maintain a healthy relationship with their
online networks?
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