30 November 2009

Fanatic

Hi. My name is Cherry and I’m a Facebook addict. There, I said it. They say that admitting is the first step to recovery. In my case, however, I doubt I would.

Although far from being a tekkie, I embraced the commercial launch of the Internet back in 1995 with wide, welcome arms and have been avidly online since. I even learned html and offered Website design and development soon afterwards. As a hobby at that.

When social networking sites started cropping up, I got into them, too: SixDegrees.com, ICQ Buddy, MySpace, Multiply, LinkedIn, Flickr, and even the biggest disappointment in Internet history (so far), Friendster. Of course, I also use communication tools like Yahoo Messenger, Chikka.com, and later on, Skype. And yes, I also blog (obviously) and Tweet.

Anyway, I was disheartened by those social networking sites. Poor design, not much interaction and growth, and just plain boring. So when Facebook came into the picture, it took me three years to actually create an account. Once in, though, I was hooked. I was able to reconnect with friends as far back as primary school and relatives all over the world. I’ve joined and advocated causes, created fan pages, kept abreast of what’s happening internationally without having to open a single newspaper page or visit a news site. I get to share photos and videos of my family and keep in touch with everyone dear to me. After the onslaught of Typhoon Ketsana, Facebook helped people communicate with one another. I was glad to have helped connect two of my friends, one who had medical kits to donate, and another helping organise relief goods and medical kits for Calamba, Laguna. They didn’t know each other, but because I read their wall posts, I introduced to them to one another, so to speak. And yes, Facebook keeps me entertained, too. Not only with the videos posted by other users, but more by the games. Yes, you read right. Games. The priest actually laughed when I confessed this fascination of mine, hearing my struggle with temperance when it comes to playing online games.

Truth be told, one of my motivations for getting up from bed each morning, despite the lure of sleeping in after a late night, is that my spaghetti would spoil if I’d leave them on the stove or that my crops would rot if not harvested on time (Same goes at night, before I hit the sack, I make sure I have enough food for the waiters to serve while I'm asleep.). If you’ve played these games, then you know I’m referring to Café World and Farm Town. Mafia Wars? I play it, too, although not as zealously.

For Lent this year, I abstained from Facebook. But hey, I am only human and couldn’t fathom staying away from Facebook the whole season. Just every Friday. It was what I coined as my Friday Facebook Fast. Now that it’s Advent, I’m thinking I should offer up abstaining from Facebook. Then again, the Yuletide season is supposed to be filled with joy and merrymaking. So maybe it’s not such a good idea, after all. =8P

Written like a true addict would, don’t you think?

3 comments:

Koji A. Iizuka said...

like a true addict :p but it does have its merit, facebook is fun. i had a hard time trying to quit mafia wars. now i'm only using the site to keep in touch with friends.

kiel estrella said...

i love this post! it's sooo chers i hang out with in college. and funny enuf, i am a facebook addict, too!

cherry said...

hey koji. play again. it's more fun these days.

@kiel -- thanks heaps, fellow FB addict