Confessions of a Facebook Addict.

According to Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, there are five levels of basic needs and these five levels are displayed in the diagram below:

All of us would agree that the needs pointed out by Maslow are indeed needs, and failure to meet one of these needs would lead to an undesired result. But now that I've temporarily cut myself off from Facebook, am I now suffering this undesired result?

Facebook-ing is a legal way of connecting to people, and thus satisfies our social needs. But when the moment comes that we find ourselves in front of the monitor, still Facebooking, despite the fact that we haven't satisfied our physiological needs and even the self-actualization needs, then there must be something wrong with us. Addiction. And there are two key elements that constitute the working definition of addiction (Henderson, 2000): 

1. loss of control over the use of substance or a thing, and 

2. continued use despite negative consequences 

The first thing that I check whenever I open my Firefox is my Facebook account. Is that addiction? Socially constructed meaning of addiction might agree that the said activity is, yes, accountable to addiction. But the loss of control stuff is quite graspable and even the "continued use despite negative consequences." Last year, I did not well in my lab reports or other scholarly activities because of my addiction to Facebook. I didn't have control. Even in my relationship to God was affected since the time that I should be spending with God, went instead to my new god, Facebook. And yes, despite the negative consequences, I still excessively used Facebook.

To clear things out, I'm not saying that Facebook is the root of all evil. No, it isn't. You can do a lot of good things in Facebook such as posting you laboratory data or just checking out some friends. But when self-discipline loses itself from you, then that is evil. Self-discipline is a hard thing especially for those people who weren't brought up by their parents with genuine displine. It's difficult to discipline yourself especially when you've already felt that sense of happiness. Facebook makes me happy. But the negative consequences of my addiction to Facebook make me ill, in all aspects of my life.

Being a Facebook addict is difficult. I already miss stalking, posting interesting and uninteresting statuses,ut nope, I haven't thrown any pillow. Right now, perhaps I am suffering from post-something (I forgot the term, it's similar to what you feel after you've cut yourself off from smoking, though I haven't really tried smoking) and that's why I'm writing all these things. I am about to encounter a relapse. Relapse is inevitable. But I will stand firm, enduring what I've previously assured to my King.

Just want to share my devo:

Acts 3:16

"By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see."