Is Facebook an Addiction?

$104Bn was the estimated worth of Facebook when it floated on the NYSE. That’s a lot of friends. I am not on Facebook, I don’t see the point but my wife is obsessed with it. At all times, she seems to be fiddling away on her Blackberry debating the relative merits of whichever loser is currently being ridiculed on the X Factor. Even crying children have to compete with Facebook for attention and I am minded of Hogarth’s C18 engraving of gin soaked mothers letting their babies fall from the breast. An extreme analogy, perhaps, but one that makes the point, I hope. I appreciate that Facebook has opened up a whole new world to mums, especially when they have young children/babies. Instead of feeling isolated and withdrawn because they are in the house, they can still feel in touch with the outside world and feel connected. But I just don’t get the constant need to feel connected, especially if you’re just about to see, or have just seen, someone. Am I alone in thinking like this? Why do girls have this constant need to communicate with their friends, even when their kids are jumping up and down for attention? I suppose it's good for kids to know that Mum or Dad can be busy sometimes and that "I WANT A BISCUIT!" is not going to get an immediate response. They don't know that Mummy is distracted by a social networking site; she tells them she's working. It is frustrating though, having my every move recorded into the Blackberry; I feel like I have been electronically tagged.