Five tell-tale signs you're a Facebook addict

Talk about burying the lede.

The news came and went with hardly more than cursory attention. But when you consider how few Americans were using social networks five years ago compared with nowadays, the stunner in Nielsen's latest report on how Americans are using social networks was this nugget: Social networks and blogs now account for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the Internet. (More here.)

And when you're talking about social networks - lets - then you're really talking about Facebook, which has hooked hundreds of millions of people as users. The site's well-chronicled attractions are always a source of fascination and this jewel of a first-person writeup, courtesy of our sister site ZDNet, is well worth your time. If you've been in denial about a bad Facebook jones, consider the advice of author Zack Whittaker, himself a hopeless Facebook addict, who has pinpointed five tell-tale signs:

• You become paranoid: "Why hasn't this person messaged me back?"
• You spend more than an hour or five on the site.
• A confusion of the divergence of real life and Facebook
• Excessive friend building and Wall posts
• Depression sets in during downtime, and other withdrawal symptoms

Check out the fine print in Zach's writeup here. Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the talkback section below.