People can often get into the habit of spending too much time on Facebook. These people are sometimes said to be obsessed with or addicted to Facebook. On average, adults spend about three hours per week and teenagers spend about four and a half hours per week using Facebook ("Negative Effects of"). People who are "addicted" to Facebook feel the need to check their profile for any updates and set a new status multiple times per day (Lorraine). Users also often post meaningless information. An interviewee explained a negative effects of Facebook as, "Making comments about what you are doing in each moment of a day that really are meaningless to others like making dinner or driving kids to practice"(Polson).
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| Results of Survey, "Negative Effects of Facebook" |
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http://www.careers-india.com/2009/02/27/
inspiration-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-founder/ |
Spending a large amount of time using Facebook can result in other negative effects. This can include prevention of other, more important activities, "An excessive amount of time is being spent on the computer instead of spending time with friends and family or being productive"(Polson). Students who spend too much time on Facebook are unable to concentrate and get school work done, so their grades may begin to go down. Since people get used to communicating with others through Facebook, they may often start to realize that it is hard for them to carry out a real, face-to-face conversation (Pomoni).
Other people feel that their time on Facebook is very valuable and do not appreciate any distractions. An article from MSNBC.com describes a mother from Florida who shook her baby to death because he continued to cry while she was on Facebook ("Baby killed for"). Most users do not spend an excessive amount of time on Facebook, but when people do, it can lead to some negative consequences.
