‘Help: I’m a Facebook groups addict’

My name is Jo, and I’m a Facebook groups addict.

I blame maternity leave. Although, if I’m being honest, the addiction started way before then.

Bondi Babies, an apply-for-entry Facebook group designed for mums of tots in the eastern suburbs was my gateway drug. My first, tentative post three years ago asked where I’d find my nearest mother’s group – I was completely cross-eyed with sleep deprivation and couldn’t work out my local council’s confusing website. 

I got an answer back within 4 minutes from one of the site’s 7,000 members – from a mum that also had a baby the same age as my first son! Bingo. Since then, I’ve asked the Bondi Babies mums brains trust to recommend me a local gate repairman, a tiler, a babysitter - and a toddler water bottle that doesn’t bloody leak all through my handbag. Success, success, success, success, success. Easier than Googling, even!

Kylie Dunlop Photography

But it didn’t stop there.

I now belong to more than 35 Facebook groups. Buy, swap n' sell groups, where people that live nearby can post their second-hand goods for sale – like a less formal eBay or Gumtree. Mums groups. Groups for entrepreneurs. Groups for feminists. Groups for locals only. Groups for the television industry. Alumni groups. Groups for women who like the same brands or stores or even pram models as I do. Pilates groups. Recipe groups. It’s … it’s out of control, actually.

Kylie Dunlop Photography

Dr Daria Kuss is a Chartered Psychologist and teaches a course in Cyberpsychology (yes, that’s a Real Thing) at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. She says there’s nothing wrong with occasionally using social networking sites, saying; “Sites such as Facebook make it easy to ‘connect’ irrespective of time and place. In addition to this, the Internet allows individuals to find like-minded people who share similar interests and/or experiences - such as being a young mother - and to connect and create a sense of belonging.”  OK, good. A sense of belonging is good, right? I get my fix of that daily from my Like Minded B*tches Drinking Wine group. Yes, that group really exists. There’s 42,575 of us at last count. It's fabulous. 
 
And Dr Kuss cautions; “We all have 24 hours a day available to use, no matter how we slice it up. If a person spends hours and hours engaged in using social networking sites, there will inevitably be less time available to spend with offline social networks. In addition to this, many people are constantly connected via their smartphones, leading to less attention being paid to their contacts, possibly leading to impoverished interactions.” 

The thing is, she says, using social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram excessively can have the same negative consequences as those with traditional substance-related addictions. 

The same consequences as real addictions?! Yikes. Could that be me? I just have to go ask my Get it Off Your Chest group what they think of this, real quick. Be right back.