Debauchery & Diapers

I, Stewart Caswell, am an addict. I guess like most addicts, I don't see anything wrong with my chosen vice. In fact, I can prove that this vice has had positive effects on my life. For those who know me, it is really no secret at all: I am addicted to Facebook. 

When any addict faces his demons, he has to ask himself,  "What is the nature of my addiction?" From watching A&E, I've gleaned that a lot of addicts fall into their spiral because it's a way to self-medicate. But is that true in my case? 

And why Facebook? I've tried to get addicted to all the trendy things to be addicted to: coffee, sudoku, magic markers, but no. Facebook has pushed all those things aside and permanently moved into my life. 

Facebook addiction is a special case. Facebook isn't a substance that will alter your brain chemistry, and therefore your moods. It's just pixels and lines of text and pictures of practically everyone you've ever met in the the history of your life, in various stages of compromising positions and their children and pets. And the steady stream of debauchery and diapers can get a little monotonous. I don't think any of that is comparable to a margarita or a Jaeger bomb. 

On my Facebook, I have a mission.  With every one of my posts I try to get people to think or interact in a way that breaks up the monotony of the normal posts of other people. Have I posted pictures of my soon-to-be-inhaled meals? Yes. There's something satisfying about sharing a particularly aesthetically pleasing plate of food. We do, in fact, eat with our eyes first.  Why not share that with your friends while at the same time effectively saying, "Nanny nanny poo-poo, look at the delicious food you're never going to eat." But I try to add an interesting twist, like connecting the Lone Ranger with sushi. 

I believe there are a number of factors that go into my addiction:

1) Because I have a disability, I am always thinking that the world perceives me in terms of what I can't do. So, by being a louder-than-normal presence on Facebook, in my eyes, I'm trying to exhibit all the things I do excel at, and that, I think, puts me on a level with everyone else. 

ii) I have people who I love and care about in every corner of the globe, and it's great to have a passing knowledge of where their lives are headed, and, yes, even what they're having for lunch. So Facebook is my only lifeline to them. And it's also great to have parts of your support system you can call up at 3 in the morning, but they don't care because it's 9 am for them. 

C) Like it or not, Facebook today is what community bulletin boards were pre-2004. It's even replacing email in a lot of instances. So as we get deeper into the 21st century, it's going to become more and more of a necessity. For my generation our rite of passage was when we got our driver's license; for our children's generation it'll be the day you let them get their own Facebook page, and they are finally able to exact their revenge on you for writing all those statuses about their bodily functions. I can already see it happening. 

So to recap, why am I addicted to Facebook? Validation, self-expression, connection, and necessity. To me, all those are positive things. Facebook is a tool that everyone can use to express whatever the hell is on their minds, and share their lives with their friends and that one dude they met at that golf tournament thingy in 2007. 

So, yes, I am a Facebook addict. But am all the more richer for it.