Facebook has over 300 million active users who regularly return to the site. It started as a college-only network but spread to high schools as students joined and their parents and teachers followed. As Facebook grew, people and organizations increasingly relied on it to promote products and services, demonstrating a rising dependency on the social media platform. With billions of minutes spent and millions of daily updates, notifications and messages can make Facebook feel addictively rewarding in an unpredictable way, potentially leading to media dependency issues for some users.

1. Media Dependency Theory: Depending on Facebook

2. Facebook currently has over 300 million active users, users that have returned to the site in the last 30 days. Facebook was founded by a Harvard undergraduate student and was initially created for college students only. Since Facebook was founded in 2004, it has spread from colleges and universities to high schools. Once it was adopted by the high school students, parents and teachers started to register and create profiles. Facebook was then adopted by companies and organizations to promote their products and services by means of a Facebook profile.

3. As Facebook grows in users and popularity, there is an increased dependency on the social networking site. The average Facebook user has 130 friends on the site. More than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day, with more than 45 million status updates. Notifications, messages, and invites reward you with an unpredictable high, much like gambling. That anticipation can get dangerously addictive, causing media systems dependency.

5. You think about Facebook even when you’re offline.

6. You use Facebook to escape problems or homework.

7. You stay on Facebook longer than intended.