The FINANCIAL There are a growing number of people in the world that are becoming bored with Facebook. The FINANCIAL took a look at the trends in Georgia. As 35 out of 50 people claim, they are considering deactivating their Facebook accounts, but have no superior alternative of the social network to replace it with.
The FINANCIAL There are a growing number of people in the world that are becoming bored with Facebook. The FINANCIAL took a look at the trends in Georgia. As 35 out of 50 people claim, they are considering deactivating their Facebook accounts, but have no superior alternative of the social network to replace it with.
“One day I woke up and decided to deactivate my Facebook account, as I had decided it had become too boring for me. I had been using Facebook for two years and realized that over this time I had portrayed my entire personal life and problems on my Wall. It is addictive – sharing your photos with others and seeing theirs, but I have found that social networks really affected my relations with friends and relatives. I even forgot to call my friends, as I was constantly connected to them via Facebook,” said Ketevan Kvlividze, 22. “I have decided to deactivate my Facebook account. Not only me, but even the creator of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg himself has said that he is fed up with Facebook and wants to get back to having a normal life. Of course I am not Zuckerberg, but I realize that I spent too much time on the social network doing nothing. I am bored of Facebook, it is always the same and doesn’t change. There is nothing new, so I don’t see any need for continuing to have my Facebook account,” said Lasha Chachava, 24. “I have noticed that Facebook somehow affected my personal life. I became more social, and active, but it took a lot of time for me. Being its member since 2008, I find it much more boring now. I wonder if anyone can create another social network where people will find new and interesting things to occupy them, but some day even that would become boring as well,” said Sopo Gabashvili, 24. Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004. As the creators of this social network note, it was created for the purpose of giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Millions of people use Facebook every day to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. As the officials of Facebook note, there are more than 500 million active users. “50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day, the average user has 130 friends, people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook,” Facebook officials note. Facebook for most people has become a part of their everyday life. The FINANCIAL interviewed Teona Lomtadze, Psychologist, who speaks about the good and bad sides of being involved in the social network and how we can avoid being addicted to it. “Speaking about the social network has become a very popular theme in recent times. Some people think that the existence of the social network is very bad and others say that it has a very positive function. Everything has good and bad sides and in case of using it in a right way, social networks have many positive functions,” Lomtadze said. “In recent times many unfortunate accidents have happened concerning social networks. Dependence is one of the main and most crucial aspects when speaking about social networks. Apart from television, internet facilities give people the opportunity to be in a position of power and that’s why it causes much dependence and addiction. People have the opportunity to easily and quickly create their own virtual world which they can find more comfortable than some of their real life situations,” Lomtadze said.
“Problems with communications are some of the most painful outcomes of over-use of social networks. When a person creates his/her own virtual world and spends more time there than in reality, it has serious effects on their relations with friends, family and the environment. Humans somehow forget the habits of a normal relationship, how to tell the truth, how to express their emotions and so on. One of the main points which causes dependence is a lack of responsibility. “In a virtual world everyone can express themselves in the way they want. People have the opportunity to show off an ‘Ideal Me’ with the help of the social network and internet, so that they don’t feel any responsibility,” Lomtadze said. According to Lomtadze, while being dependent on a social network, the syndrome of lack of attention develops and the person becomes tense. Insomnia, depression, inclination to insularity, aggressiveness and problems of memory appear. But people may beat all the above mentioned problems if they want.
“When a person is emotionally balanced, there is less of a chance of becoming dependent on practical and technical usage of a social network. Social networks and the internet have their positive sides if you use them correctly. They are one of the best and quickest ways of searching and receiving information, an opportunity for very quick communication,” Lomtadze said. “There are many cases when people have a lack of personal communications and with the help of social networks they receive it. Games on a social network which unfortunately have become a reason for accidents recently might be used positively as well. If a person is psychologically balanced, the games might be used as reason of communication, for supporting strategic views and one of the facilities for rest and relaxation,” Lomtadze said. “People are easily-inspired and stresses and problems in real life can make us turn to the virtual world as a means of escape. Everyone has a risk of becoming a social network dependent and we should retain a sense of balance to avoid this problem,” Lomtadze said. While most of the people interviewed by The FINANCIAL say that they are about to deactivate their Facebook profiles, there is still a boom of this social network abroad. Facebook has become one of the reasons for marriage breakdown. According to The Telegraph, for most people Facebook is a harmless way to keep in touch with friends and family. But flirtations on the social networking site are now becoming a major factor in marriage breakdowns. Family lawyers have revealed that the problem has become so great that almost every divorce they have dealt with in the past year has involved the website. “One expert said she had dealt with 30 cases in the last nine months and Facebook had been implicated in them all. Whilst another online law company said one in five of their divorce petitions in the past year contained references to Facebook. Emma Patel, the head of family law at Hart Scales & Hodges Solicitors, said the site acted like a “virtual third party” in splits,” the Telegraph noted.
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