by Christina Pomoni

Created on: July 11, 2009   Last Updated: July 14, 2009

So, there you are, on a Saturday morning with your favorite cup of coffee caressing your senses and relaxing your brain, sitting at your desk and browsing on Facebook. You have 34 new notifications since last night that you logged out, 5 group invitations, 1 suggested page, 2 cause invitations and 3 friend requests, one of which is of an unknown person. You are not new in Facebook. You've been using it for almost two years now. And what you do this Saturday morning is what you've been doing nearly all Saturday mornings since Facebook joined your life. When the weather is nice, you ignore half of the invitations for new apps and you quickly accept the group and the cause invitations so that you go out and enjoy life. Only later, when the weather is bad and you have to stay indoors, you start deleting apps, causes, groups and people. And this goes on and on, relentlessly. Whether you have realized it or not, Facebook is a real part of your life, is a real partner whom you have to see for good morning and kiss for good night. What changes over time is your degree of addiction; as it happens with all love-hate relationships.

So, what's the deal between you and Facebook? Some days ago, you felt cornered by it, like it was damaging your real relationships, like it was chocking your real life. So you bid your 546 Facebook friends goodbye with one last poke, stating mood unhappy and left the virtual world with a swift click of your mouse. You did it for the sake of your marriage, for the sake of your life in general. The virtual death of your Facebook profile, of a profile you had been creating for so long, systematically and methodically, was peaceful, yet abrupt. But so was its resurrection. Less than two weeks later, you were active and sound again.

You don't think you are a Facebook addict. Social networking is just a part of your generation that feels more comfortable with text messaging, chatting and online communication. But, hey! Your generation counts nearly forty years already, while Facebook is around the last five. Supposedly, social networking is mostly addressed to younger people. You and your children have probably contacts of similar agein your friends list. The generation gap is bridged when it comes to Facebook. Facebook can be used for personal or for business reasons. However, most of the people use it primarily for personal reasons because Facebook has so many applications, games and tools that anyone can join for free and lead a 'social' life

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