Here’s a riddle: What is not real but consumes more time than most everything else in your life? Is your own creation yet more popular than you? And is addicting even though it gives you no tangible pleasure?

The answer: Facebook.

Despite whatever my intention may be, the letters “F-a-c-e-b-o-o-k” seem to be the first thing my fingers type into the search bar. I often find myself browsing over the same, unchanged “news” for a moment before it dawns on me that I originally opened the Internet to actually look something up. My original inquiry seems to drip out of my mind the minute my browser opens and my Facebook routine kicks in.

Login, scroll, click, close, logout. Repeat.

The ‘Big 3’ of Facebook is what makes it all worth it. Your friend requests, messages and notifications are the source of all this artificial pleasure. There is something exciting about seeing a little red tag pop up in the upper left corner of the computer screen. It is a sign that people are interacting with you. People are showing you attention.

My friends and I often joke by saying, “Hold on, I’m about to check my other life real quick.” It seems funny at first but the sad reality is that Facebook is essentially a separate life. Think about the number of friends you have on Facebook. Now think about the number of those people you would say hi to if you passed them on campus.

In my opinion, Facebook is largely responsible for the “awkward eye contact-look away quickly” phenomenon that plagues the youth of today.

You know what I am talking about. You see a person that you recognize. You probably know where they go to school and what they study. You also probably know who they hang out with and what their favorite movies and music are. But, they never actually told you this. You learned it all while you were sitting in your dorm room by yourself with your eyes fixed on a computer screen. We should feel awkward and look away when we see each other; there is nothing natural about our “friendship.”

It is all the information that constitutes a traditional friendship but it skips the most important part: spending time with and learning about each other. It amazes me the difference between how some people present themselves online and how they carry themselves in person. Facebook makes it so easy for people to interact that when it comes to a face-to-face situation a lot of people freeze up.

Facebook is a revolutionary tool. We all know its potential is huge. It has already changed the world. It allows you to network with millions and keep in touch with old friends across the globe.

This is why I hate to see it being abused.

A couple different forms of Facebook abuse are as follows: adding me as a friend before saying anything to me in person; writing on my wall or commenting on my photographs then passing me by without even a friendly head-nod; posting every insignificant aspect and event of your life, i.e.- “Shouldn’t have gotten mayonnaise on my sandwich, what was I thinking?!;” posting pictures with the pure intention of bragging and showing off how much cooler and more fun your life is than mine.

If your life is actually as interesting as you say then you would have no time to remind the world with 50 consecutive posts about who knows what.

The reality is that you could present yourself anyway you would like on Facebook. Facebook allows me to portray only my finest points to the public. Everything I put on my profile is carefully selected and crafted. I may tell you that I “like” world peace, the rain and sushi. My interests may include spelunking, hanging out with friends and eating turkey sandwiches. We may seem to be the perfect match, like I am the yin to your yang, but we both lack the social skills to actually spend time together and enjoy our favorite activities then what is the point of us being “friends?”

Facebook is a great tool for life and an even better way to kill five minutes before class. Leave it at that though and do not abuse Facebook to the extent that you forget about your other life, the one that actually exists. If Facebook disappeared tomorrow and you ran around campus shoving pictures of yourself in people’s face, asking them to comment on it, you would probably have a hard time making friends. Like many great things in life, use but don’t abuse Facebook.

Joshua Steinberg is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].