A Solution To Your Facebook Addiction

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Feb 26,2008

There are articles all over the internet discussing the addiction of facebook, myspace, blogs, and other internet information addictions. They all tell you to do the same thing, just stop using social networks. Well, come on, none of us are going to stop checking our facebook. I know I am not, and I know you are not.

Why do we check our facebook so much? Here are a few reasons why.

• We don’t want to miss the next social event.
• We are bored.
• We are procrastinating
• Seeing if that attractive girl (or guy) responded to our comment.

So, we are not going to stop checking our facebook because it is socially beneficial. Humans are social, we can’t change that.

How to Spend Less Time On Facebook

1. Calculate how much time you spend checking your Facebook.

I just checked my facebook. All I did was looked at the notices and my inbox (I did not reply to anything or visit anyone’s page) and I spent 1 minute 30 seconds on facebook. Now how many times do you check your facebook? 5 times a day? 10 times? 5 times would be 7 minutes 30 seconds. 10 times would be 15 minutes.

Alright, that doesn’t seem like to much time. But do you also check your email, blogs, news, myspace, dating website, school email? If you spent 15 minutes a day with all of those. You are wasting time. You could be wasting 1-2 hours a day!

Do I have you convinced that you are wasting time? Good.

It’s not that difficult to reduce the time you spend on these websites without reducing the benefits of the sites.

2. Create a Google Email account.

This is the easiest part of saving time. To go to Google’s account creation click here.

Did you create an account? Easy Right?

Why Am I Creating a Google Email Account?

You are creating Google Email account because Google allows you to forward your email to programs like Outlook, programs on cellphones, and other electronic devices. Google offers this service for free! Unlike email services such as Yahoo.

3. Send Facebook Notices to Your Email

Now go to your facebook. Go to your account and under settings make sure that your new Google Email is your contact email for facebook.

Now here is the difficult part. In your facebook account go to Notifications. Turn off EVERYTHING that is not important. There is no need for you to be notified by email when someone POKES you! Keep notifications for such things as messages and invitations to events. That is the information you actually need.

Turn off ALL applications. Most applications are a complete waste of your time, similar to poking. Just turn them off. If you want to have fun with applications, schedule time on the weekend to play.

4. Do this with all social networks and things you subscribe to.

If you do these steps, all you need to do is check your Google Email. You will save a lot of time, not needing to go to every website to check your messages.

It Gets Better

Do you have Microsoft Outlook? If you don’t, I highly recommend you getting it. Most Universities sell Microsoft Outlook for a very low price, or possibly for free.

What is Outlook?

Outlook is a program that organizes your emails, lists your contacts, and supplies a nice calender. Using Outlook allows you to put all of your emails, from different accounts, onto one page. Outlook can check your mail every 2 minutes if you like, and a small pop up will appear to tell you have new mail.

If you use Outlook it eliminates any need to check your accounts, because it will let you know if Bob has left a message on facebook.

RSS Feeds

If you are a blogger, or a news junky. You probably know what an RSS feed is. If you don’t know what an RSS feed is don’t worry about it. But if you do subscribe to RSS feeds then Outlook can organize your feeds just like your emails.

Note: I did not give very specific details on how to setup Outlook and forwarding Emails with Google. The reason I did not is that depending on your school email and other things the process may be different. To set up your School Email up with Outlook visit your IT at your university.

If you need help, I probably can help. The more specific your question the easier it is for me to help.