by Lisa Oates

Created on: July 21, 2009

Husband: Babe, I think you should get off the computer now. Dinner is waiting on the table.

Me: Okay, just give me another minute.

[10 minutes pass]

Husband: We're waiting, Honey.

Me: Okay! I just have to check one more thing.

If this is a recurring conversation in your household, you might be addicted to Facebook. Why is it so addicting? How can you waste so much of your valuable time on Earth checking statuses, fan pages, and rifling through a stranger's pictures? Facebook gives us the ability to look personally into the lives of others, whether they are acquaintances, close friends, family, or strangers. Some like to call it stalking.

You have a Facebook account, don't you? How often do you sign in to your account? How long do you stay on the site once you're in? Here are some signs that you might, in fact, be addicted to Facebook.

1. You spend every available moment on Facebook, checking on the status of your favorite people, and your least favorite people.

2. You know people only because of Facebook. You became the friend of someone you walked passed at the mall. You know who he is, meaning you know his name, but you don't know him. Oh well, you friend him regardless.

3. When you finally meet up with a friend (in person) from back in the day, you go back and forth with stories and updates about other folks you know, and finish each story with, Yeah, I saw that on Facebook!

4. You are in the loop when it comes to knowing who is married, single, and engaged, who is pregnant, who just gave birth, and who just got dumped.

5. You spend at least an hour a day viewing photo after photo in some stranger's photo album, just because one of your friends was tagged in one of the 187 photos.

6. You send Yankee Candles and flowers that grow to someone at least twice a week.

7. You are addicted to Mob Wars.

8. You have changed your profile picture at least 150 times since you first signed up for an account; thus, your Profile Pictures photo album is almost full.

9. You wish all your Facebook friends a Happy Birthday, even though you never wished them a Happy Birthday in the 4 years you went to school with them.

10. You are a fan of Coca-Cola, Ellen Degeneres, Sunshine, and Starbucks.

11. You have signed up for more than 20 applications on Facebook, and you use all of them regularly.

12. You know that when a friend takes up too much space on your home page or news feed that you can remove that friend's updates altogether.

13. You've created a group, an event, a fan page, and a Dog Book.

14. You have posted 52 photo albums, 17 videos, and 68 notes, plus shared a number of links with friends.

15. You feed your personal blog posts into your Facebook profile so your friends can keep tabs on you, because updating your status is just not good enough.

If you find yourself falling into any of the above items, do not worry. Many Facebook users are probably considered addicts. Just try to remember that taking time away from your face-to-face friends and family is time that you will never get back.

Learn more about this author, Lisa Oates.
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