Facebook Anonymous

I have not known fear in recent years until yesterday when I couldn't log in to facebook, even after resetting my password. And when I tried to cheat and revisit pages from my browsing history, I came across my profile, and beside it, the link "Add as Friend".

For a moment it felt like I was dead and was visiting the world, and seeing myself as others would see me, and the feeling of disconnect was too overwhelming I turned the computer off and read my way into the night.

This morning I woke, and the computer represented the barrier keeping me out of the world of Friends, no matter how connected, or disconnected I am from all the names in the Friends List. I avoided it like the plague, and spent the morning at Holland V reading Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones before going to KoolPurpleSkool.

Returning from quartet rehearsal, I decided to give it a try again. I emailed Facebook support last night and their reply came surprisingly promptly. And effective their support was.

The sense of relief when I saw the newsfeeds made me feel extremely stupid for thus obsessing over a lame page - I didn't even feel half as freaked out when I couldn't log in to MSN for one week. But this was different. It felt as if after I had built up some sort of online identity on Facebook, to start that laborious process all over again felt too tiring, but yet I didn't know what I would do without checking friends' status updates daily.

There. The embarrassing secret is out.

My name is Elizabeth and I am a Facebook Addict.