Stealing time

I don't get us.

Why do we feel the necessity to spend countless hours on Facebook? Oh, don't get me wrong! I am guilty of this too. I take a break from writing my dissertation every hour or so, to check what you may be doing, what you may have liked and what you may have copied on your wall as a sign of love, compassion or just falling in the trap of a stupid scam.

But why?

I recently met numerous people who told me they'd never get on facebook, cause it's eating away their quality family time. And is that all it's eating? I for example like having curtains on my windows. I hate it when outsiders can peek into my private life whenever they wish. I don't want them to see what I'm doing, what I'm dressed with and what my style is in decoration preference. I do this all for me and the very few ones, whom I let in my home. Yet, here I am, sharing pictures with everyone, stating my 'status',  my likes and my opinions on other people's 'like's. Even writing my blog is just like that. Why do I need to tell you this? This isn't my diary! I blog, so you can see what I write in my 'diary'. There's nothing personal about this. Nothing private. And yet, it contains my most private thoughts, which I wouldn't share with you unless, say you've been in my home.

I find two explanations to this paradox and I urge you to share yours with me and become more active in this topic.
1. I WANNA KNOW THAT I'M BETTER THAN YOU. Social comparison. A sin, a slavery, a bitch. We are social animals. Unfortunately so much so, that social life often rules our personal, intimate decisions, even though our inner core may oppose them. I may be perfectly happy spending a day, laying on the couch, but I don't because society judges this as laziness. I could be happy living in a tent, but I need to work my entire life paying for a house, because otherwise I'd feel judged. So, I want to see where you are, what you eat, where you go on vacations, so that I can think of better things to do and create my own illusion that my choices are better than yours and I am better than you. Furthermore, I want to show you that I've been to all these places, learned all these things and eaten all those foods, so I can prove to you that I've done better.

2. I REPLACE MY FRIENDS WITH FACEBOOK. The choice of living as emigrants has led to an unstable social environment. Unfortunately, even if I had chosen to stay in my hometown, my friends' choice to become emigrants themselves would have led to the same thing. So now, knowing how picky and intolerant I have become I just can't be bothered to look for new friends. So, I dig and I dig and you too dig and you dig, till you find me in the farthest corner of your mind and say 'Hey, I once saw this guy on the street, I'll add him to my friends'. As a result I have at least 100 people, if not more in my 'friends' list, whom I have never spoken to. But now I know where they live and how many things they have and what they do in their spare time. I barely have time to write any of my FRIENDS an e-mail, but I share countless of megabytes of meaningless information with all those people.

And this is sad...this just makes me sad. Is this just another way of numbing myself into oblivion? Is this really who I am? You should really ask yourself why you're reading this. I find it possible that I'm taking your valuable time away from some creative, cathartic experience...or am I just stealing your Facebook time?