Four thousand five hundred and thirty eight friends on Facebook. Are you even allowed to do that?

It is needless to state that Facebook has become an integral part of our day to day lives. A ritual, a tradition, an inescapable truth and probably would be a part of children's night stories a generation after us. How much of it is done because you want to do it? Or perhaps it has settled in our minds with so much conviction that it almost suffices as a need rather than a necessity. You have been doing this for quite some time now, your friends are doing it, all those people at your office are doing it and virtually everybody is doing it or reading it.

It is a factnow. Then what is this article about? Why are you reading it? Probably you are thinking even the writer must be on Facebook while writing this. Well you are not wrong I am on Facebook, as I write this. And I include myself in this introspection because of my own over indulgence in social networking. Facebook is amazing; it has opened a whole new world of reality for us. A world that would have existed for so long and only became obvious to us after Facebook. But the thing is addiction is almost next to enslavement. And slavery is a very negative context to put anyone in. And some might state that slavery is something that you are made to do unwillingly. Again my question pops up. What do you will? You will to read this article and if you don't you'd immediately switch over to something else. Do you get this liberty everywhere? Why would I ever leave a social networking site, I mean why would you want to do it? You must be thinking the person writing is a forever loner and you don't want to be excluded out of the world. I read a status a few days back which read "Quitting Facebook is like running away from home, you always will come back." That is faith.  Faith is a very powerful word. Faith is a necessity.

 It is a necessity to be updated and to be in the social crowd. And it is so urgent that any extent is not too far for a patron. And by extent I intend to suggest, the way people project themselves on these social networking sites.  You have not only projected and crafted an image but are slogging hard to keep up to it. What is this urge that did not exist a few years ago and it is absolutely unavoidable now? I think it is a phase and it is a very strong phase like that of the punks and hippies. I wonder if Facebook was some sort of a political organization than it could have turned the world upside down overnight. And as a matter of fact, it is being used for propagating agendas or to fulfill ulterior motives. But then it provides a lot of individual space to its users also. Like never before, people are able to showcase their talents on social networks to people all over the world. Facebook feels likesome kind of a force and it has struck us hard. It suggests the need for people to be in touch with people. May be this is why the world is moving towards virtual companionship looking for people to talk to,who don't even exist. Why is all this being mentioned here, what is the point?

The point is, do we actually need the things we think we need?  Are we able to make our own choices? Yes of course we do, who else does it? That is a good question.