I am not addicted to Facebook...

...because I am rather addicted to social contact with the people there.

             

Guitar and garment of Jimi Hendrix.

       I turn on the computer on Thursday morning and instead of feeling pleased by the Google’s O shaped as a birthday cake I feel worried. Worried about what everything Google and Facebook know about us and we don’t even know. On Thursday, I reached the age when Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse left for the eternity. Today, our identities are eternal from the moment we put them on the social networks. Plato said 2,500 years ago that our world is just an imperfect reflection of abstract ideas. Today, we get back to that ideal world with each log-in. The more, the higher the chance that we completely lose contact with reality.

           Older generations put the young people immersed in their displays into the unwanted category of addicts and outcasts. Few years ago, they gazed the same ways at the rock musicians and no one was surprised if they had to leave this world at young age. Now, they are legends. Not everything that is good had an ideal start into the world and in order to work, it needs to fish out some mistakes.

           In 2004, I watched the opening match of EURO football championship between the home Portugal and Greece. A young Portuguese run onto the pitch in the second half and almost immediately caused a penalty and his team lost. Today, he is the best player of the world, Cristiano Ronaldo. The same year, Facebook was born. Initially, it did not convince me, either. However, coach Scolari gave Ronaldo second chance in the second match and gradually he replaced the legendary Luis Figo. Some say that Facebook also replaced what had been here before.

         

             Ronaldo maybe isn't the ideal example of a sportsman,  many would agree, but I have to pay respect to the fact that he is good in the business of football. Neither social networks might be the ideal environment, but it is possible to find ways how to use them at our advantage. Remember that the photos entrusted to the virtual space remain there till eternity; therefore be moderate with pictures and political commentaries. Also set time limits because there is a thin line between meaningful activity and addiction. There is a difference between responding to a friend's message and refreshing the screen every minute, expecting answer desperately, like Marc Zuckerberg in the end of The Social Network.

          Not all the time spent on social networks is addiction and it definitely does not have to be time waste. Computers and mobiles can do everything now; we can arrange the meeting point and time. It is more practical than running around the houses of my friends and getting players for a game of football. We wasted lot of time with that and it is one of the reasons we did not achieve the success of Ronaldo.

           In 99% of cases I prefer face2face contact. Even today I could use my time on the internet effectively. But instead, I go to the gym because they are live people. And later I go to Brno for a series of workshops and we arrange on the departure time on Facebook.