(A young man finds himself addicted to Facebooking" and recovers...he writes:)

"All this started to add up, and scare me, over the summer. I interned in Washington at a company where most employees had Facebook profiles. Naturally, I "friended" many of them. One day my boss made some comments about my personal status and movie interests, creeping me out. He had broken the cardinal, if unwritten, rule of Facebook etiquette: Never hint that you know anything about someone's profile. Voyeurism must be anonymous (which might be why Beacon caused such a stir).

I'm in recovery now, having realized that the last thing I want is for people to find out about me the things that I used to find out about them. I have removed loads of personal information from Facebook, de-tagging myself from pictures, abandoning the "status update" as a narrative of my private life and walling myself off from Beacon's grasp. These days, I'm finding myself with time on my hands. Best of all, beating my addiction has opened up a novel way to get to know people: face to face."

The writer is a sophomore at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.