A Distracting Obsession

There is something taking over the lives of college students across the United States. It never sleeps, it never eats, and it’s often changing its appearance. Some might call it a monster, invading the land of Cyberspace and taking over helpless mouse pads. Others might say it has god like qualities, able to create anything and see everything. Others however, simply call it, Facebook.

Regardless of how you feel about Facebook.com, a popular social networking site, there is one common description that Facebook believers and objectors can agree upon, Facebook is a distraction. And since its creation in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook now has over 19 million registered users, spanning over 47,000 regional, work-relate, and collegiate and high school networks. One of which, is the University of San Francisco, where out of 264 students surveyed by a USF journalism 2 class, 42 percent said they log on to Facebook multiple times a day. Nearly 30 percent of those students, also admitted to logging on to Facebook during their valuable and pricey class time. Through an email exchange, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at USF, David Silver explained that a reason for the popularity of Facebook is because it is, “an example of customizable or personalized media,” said Silver.

Sophomore Amanda Niello, Media Studies Major, agrees with Silver and says, “Facebook is very distracting. I’ll be on the computer writing a paper and I will suddenly get the urge to see if there are any new pictures tagged of my friends from home or if I have gotten a new wall post about the past weekend.”

Regardless of whether you find yourself as a friend or foe to the overwhelming popular Facebook, which according to comScore, is the sixth-most trafficked site in the United States and is the number one photo-sharing site, it is undeniable that the social networking site serves as a both an obsession and distraction for countless college students across the country. “College students, like so many other contemporary Americans, love thinking about, talking about, and hearing about themselves,” said Silver. “This may explain the root of the obsession.”