The Problem with Facebook, as I see it.

Not so long ago, you were an unsocial cretin if you stayed at home and spent all your time on the internet.
You were socially impaired and intellectually advanced. Well, within reason.
Nowadays, one has no ability to be social without spending a decent amount of time on the internet.
I'll send texts, I'll make phonecalls and I won't ever get a response. If I leave someone a wall post on Facebook, I'll get a response within the hour. If not from the person, then from someone else who knows what they are doing at what times.
For those of us with addictive personalities, this is not a good thing.
I can have a major assignment that I desperately need to complete before the end of the day, and instead of doing it, I will spend 70% of my time at the computer staring at the Facebook news feed.
So what is the next step? To stop using Facebook.
But it's not that simple, is it?
Facebook is not only the only way I can contact most people I talk to, but it's also become our calendar and our open channel of news.
Without going on Facebook, I wouldn't know about Steve Job's death.
(Which, as an outspoken gamer and Windows supporter, I still respected Jobs and everything he and his company has accomplished)
Not only that, I wouldn't know that my friend crashed her car the other day, I wouldn't know about my friend's crumbling relationship, nor about another friend's started one.
But who cares about that, right?
Sadly, we have to.
If I were to see this person at TAFE, at their work, something like that, something of social importance like that would come up. At which point, my lack of knowledge about such an event would become evident, and the "Well, I posted it on Facebook." would arise.

It wasn't that long ago that heavy internet use branded someone as a nerd.
Now, you're not social unless you're doing it too.
I have experienced this many times first hand, a friend of mine doesn't attend a party or gathering I host, at which point I inform them that they would have known about it were they on Facebook.

So for someone like me, with this addictive personality of mine, what option do I have but to remain on the site?
I'm a social creature, I'll miss out on social occasions, nobody will ever be able to get ahold of me and nobody will be able to critique my thoughts or jokes.
I wish we, as a society, would go back about five years. It's not long ago, but it's just long enough for people to respond to text messages again.


Please excuse the long rant that everyone has heard a dozen times before, but sadly, I'm really behind on assignments and am forcing myself away from Facebook, so I had to find a new way to procrastinate.



EDIT:
I forgot to add, and now can no longer find the article I'm referencing here, but it's also been theorised (Or was it proven?.. I need to find that article) that the intake of new information from any source (Newspaper, the news, a non-fiction book or, in this case, Facebook) releases a chemical in the brain that causes pleasure.
Was it serotonin? I don't remember...
But that is a more scientific reason as to why Facebook is addictive, instead of just ramblings.