I recently began thinking about life before technical advances such as cell phones and Facebook. Many in our generation have essentially grown up with cell phones making them very much a part of us, just as useful as a hand or our eyes. Facebook is a slightly different animal, appearing on the scene only a few years ago. Is it something we really need though? Our parents got along just fine without all these tools, and look how they turned out.

I remember when I first heard of it. I became curious about this so-called “Facebook” during my senior year of high school. I remember waiting anxiously for Loyola to bestow upon me my precious college e-mail address, back then the only way to create a Facebook account.

And so it began, countless hours wasted away checking and rechecking notifications, uploading pictures and mindlessly checking up on friends via their Facebook profiles. I often wonder how Facebook and other similar networking sites have greatly shaped the face of not only university life, but also the workplace, middle schools and many other sectors of life throughout the country and world. It is now hard to imagine a world without it and how difficult a world that would be for many of us.

But has Facebook made it too easy? You can simply send a “friend” an event invitation on Facebook instead of asking them in person. You can write multiple Facebook comments on a wall of a “friend” without actually making an effort to see them in person. What are the pros and cons of Facebook? Has it aided us in making real life friends and keeping up with relationships? Or has it simply allowed us to slip into a virtual type of life where we are content to have our relationships confined to the computer screen? Is this a foreshadowing of how life will be in the future? All are legitimate questions without real answers.

I believe it has to do with the person. A person’s relationship with Facebook depends greatly on the amount of self-control that the individual is able to exercise.

For many, Facebook has quite literally become an addiction, possibly interfering with school, family life, the workplace, etc. Perhaps schools should provide Facebook therapy sessions — Facebook Addicts Anonymous. Hopefully most of us will not have to go to those lengths to be sure of our health, sanity and time management skills. With moderation, like with everything, all should be well.

But still, the question posed is an interesting one. What if you had to go back to a life without Facebook? Could you do it? It’s something that I do not think many people could do without a little bit of agony. If we were able to completely give up Facebook, just think of the ways our lives would change for the better.

We cannot forget that real joy comes from being active in the real world. We should make sure that we are not allowing ourselves to give up real relationships in favor of having one with Facebook. While Facebook can be a useful tool in keeping up with friends, we need to make sure that it does not replace them, but more importantly, we need to make sure it does not replace our lives.

Emily Ramirez can be  reached  at [email protected]