Addictions

She stretches and yawns and before her feet touch the floor, she reaches for her computer. The web site she desires has all her sign on information and password saved enabling her to get to what she needs quickly. Her fix. That's what she feels as her eyes open to a new day. She is a stay at home mom and the computer action fills her day until her children arrive home from school.

The secretary checks her computer and follows the same routine as the stay at home mom. She looks for her fix before she leaves for the day to spend time at her desk. Rushing home, she seats herself in her office chair as she sips the cup of warmed coffee, she gazes down the list of posts once again. She too is looking for her afternoon fix.

He spends most of his days indoors. His computer, a steady mate, he searches for his daily fix. The web site he uses for this is the same one the secretary and the stay at home mom uses and for the same reasons. The list of viewers is long. Their descriptions parallel each other.  

This is a commonality they share. Their fix comes from the reading of and comments they share in the ever flowing drama that pours from this website.

Facebook's market shares have skyrocketed. They joke amongst themselves, these people that are "friends" and are sharing the same addiction. The posts that entertain them are the posts that are aimed at skewering and debasing another. This is their addiction. As the Romans watched from their tiered seats in the coliseums, so do these voyeurs watch with glee and amusement as the combatants in this war square off to batter and ram each other with snide comments, personal attacks and a show that keeps everyone signing in for their fix.

They laugh and comment in personal chats between themselves the latest chapter in this war. The fix they crave is fed daily. The watchers are transfixed with the drama and though they may protest or not, these actions, if stopped,  their days would lose a bit of the excitement that feeds their fix.

Their addiction has developed over months until they do not consciously recognize it as such. It is now a habit that causes them to sign on in search of a little slice of excitement in their lives. A habit is a word that is interchangeable with the stronger word of addiction.

The watchers watch and feed their addiction. They watch the entertainers that claim the stage and present a performance that only a Jerry Springer audience appreciates.

I confess. I'm one of the watchers in this drama. It's a Facebook train wreck and who can take their eyes from a wreck?  For a few minutes it's amusing. It's a study in human behavior. It's entertainment. It's Facebook!