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Hooked on the ‘Book

By on June 28, 2010

 

Photo © Elena Derevtsova

 

A quick question: what is your best friend doing at this very moment? Which of your classmates has a birthday today? Who did your high school sweetheart marry, and what is their spouse’s favorite movie and current occupation? Just five or six years ago, questions like this would require some extensive research, phone calls, and maybe even contact with somebody you hoped you would never have to talk to again. But that is no longer the case.

 

Today, according to the site itself, there are over 400 million active Facebook users in the world. That’s more than three times the population of Japan, and almost 100 million more than the population of the United States. In fact, Facebook has become the second most accessed website in the world, behind only Google, and the only one in the top 12 not owned by Google Inc. 

 

So what makes Facebook so alluring? Well, for one thing, it’s a great way to keep in touch with friends and family while you’re away from them. As people stock up on friends all around the world, the digital spider web of Facebook expands and communication between everybody becomes easier. As well as this, Facebook allows people to share photos, videos, notes and countless applications with one another, providing virtually endless possibilities all contained within a single website. 

 

Along with Facebook, sites such as Twitter have found similar success in the social networking universe. Twitter, similar to Facebook in that people are able to interact with their many “followers” through posts, limits the character quantity for any post to 140. This simple objective of Twitter is a way for friends and family to keep each other updated on their day-to-day activities, as well as any thoughts they may wish to share. Because of its shorthand, straightforward nature, Twitter had obtained 75 million users as of January 27, 2010, according to the Inquirer, and its numbers continue to grow. One aspect that separates Twitter from Facebook is that celebrities such as Britney Spears, Oprah Winfrey and even President Barack Obama have their own pages with thoughts and day-to-day activities posted regularly, and these pages can be accessed by anyone at any time. Now that’s networking.

 

Japan has been no stranger to the social networking craze. According to PCWorld.com, although the number of Facebook users in Japan has increased greatly in the past year and a half, it is still well behind the popular Japanese social networking site Mixi. Mixi, a site similar to Facebook but designed to cater to the Japanese community, recently announced that their number of users has surpassed 20 million in Japan. Though that is only 15.7 per cent of the population, it remains far greater than Facebook’s mere 2 per cent (PCWorld). 

 

For the time being, while Facebook and Mixi continue to attract consumers, it is too early to determine Twitter’s potential for success in Japan, seeing as it was only released here in 2009. But results look promising, as according to WindMill Networking there were already 2 million Twitter users by the beginning of 2010. It’s hard to tell when the next great social networking site will explode onto the scene, but you can bet that when it comes around, it won’t take long for people to spread the word.

 

Sam Griffen is a former student of the American School in Japan.

 

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY …

 

Q: Why do people lose control and get addicted to Facebook or other social networking sites?  

 

Dr. Berger says: Humans have a natural need to socialize and interact with others. Especially for adolescents and young adults, they have a strong drive for acceptance and to be part of the “in crowd”, and these sites cause the most problems for this age group. Facebook or other social networking sites take advantage of this need, adding the ability to exchange photos and other media as kind of a “show-and-tell” where one can receive positive feedback, and the use of this kind of medium can explode. 

    

Q: Why can getting hooked on it have damaging consequences?


Dr. Berger says:  Naturally, too much time spent on one’s PC can impair family, school, or work function. If the parents try too hard to control the child, there can be intense fights for control. 

  

Q:  How can one detach healthily from too much dependence on gadgets?


Dr. Berger says: As noted above, the main reason for the explosion of social networking sites is for social acceptance. This is really no different from hanging out at the hamburger joint, street corner, or movie theater as in the ’50s and ’60s, the mall as in the ’70s or ’80s, e-mail or chat rooms as in the ’90s, or just to spend hours on the phone as many young people have done for decades. If someone is too engrossed in one of these sites and there is family trouble, or if the person has other psychiatric symptoms (ie, they are depressed, feel rejected easily, or can’t pay attention to things of priority, etc.), then they should be seen by a mental health professional.


Doug Berger, M.D., Ph.D provides mental health care for individuals, couples and families, in both English and Japanese at the Meguro Counseling Center. www.megurocounseling.com 

 

About Dr. Douglas Eames