Facebook provides so many ways to while away your existence.
Do I want to read about the latest baby exploits from the legion of young mothers? Do I want to try to decipher the existential koans some of my friends seem to mistake for status updates? Perhaps click through a few dozen random party pictures? It’s all so diverting.
Yes, for the vast millions on Facebook, “diverting” is perhaps the best way to describe the routine of checking back a few, or a few dozen, times a day. Checking Facebook begins as something you do between everything else — answering the phone, writing e-mail, actually working — until one day you realize you spent an entire afternoon fitting everything else between your time on Facebook. Continue reading
