What ever happened to anonymous?

While pursuing Facebook this morning, I couldn’t help but noticed that a group had been formed for Alcoholics Anonymous. Yes, that’s right, Alcoholics Anonymous can now be part of your Facebook experience. Even more interesting, Narcotics Anonymous also has their own group. While you are busy social networking, you can also announce your ties to the twelve steps.

I always thought the anonymous factor of AA and NA was part of the effectiveness. I’m under the impression that no last names are used in their meetings. I’ve never been to a meeting before so I don’t have a very good understanding of what happens during their time together beyond the twelve steps. In fact, if you look at their website, you will find that they do not keep case histories or attendance records. That sounds anonymous to me.

But anonymous is part of the organization’s name. Anonymous. Unnamed. Unidentified. Unknown. Nameless. The group isn’t called “Announcing Alcoholics”. We don’t ask people who are changing their lives and moving away from drug and alcohol abuse to wear some sort of scarlet letter. They’ve been through enough already. Their families have been through enough already.

What is the benefit to announcing this on the internet?

I have no problem with personal testimony from addicts. I think it is truly wonderful and important when they share their experiences with each other and with the people in their lives who have not faced addiction. But I’m just not sure what the benefit is to the Facebook Group. If I could understand the benefit, it might be different.

Maybe part of the problems is that I feel it makes light of a very serious problem.

THE TWELVE STEPSOF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.


By the way, if you or someone you know needs help, check out the AA website at www.alcoholics-anonymous.org/

Finally!

I've been hooked on Facebook.com since college. I don't think I discovered it until midway through my fourth year in school but I have logged in at least four times a week since then. Usually more but I don't want to make myself sound like too much of an addict.

Within the last year or so, facebook added the ability to customize your page which I am assuming was an attempt to really compete with myspace. I don't know how successful it has been because I think most of us are on both facebook and myspace but what do I know. I am still amazed at the variety of applications that one may add. Harry Potter Spells. Food Fight! Happy Hour. iLike. Flixster. Friend Wheel. Politcal Compass. Free Gifts. Book Club. It's border line insane really.

Recently I added the "Compare People" application. Not because I really wanted to compare people but because I was curious about what it was. I kept getting notifications that I had been compared and I was curious. Who had I been compared to? Was it good stuff or bad stuff? The knowledge that this application was out there was starting to make me paranoid... I had to know!

Upon adding the application, I discovered that I am ranked with in my group of friends as the second sexiest person and the third person you would want to be in handcuffs with. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. I do know that the person who beats me on the sexiness category is an exboyfriend of mine. Having "been there, done that" I think the individuals utilizing the application might be mistaken. I am also not sure who beats me for the handcuffs and it might be better that I not know.

I also discovered that I am horrified by the application. Who the hell am I to compare my friends? Furthermore, who the hell are you to compare me? A friend of mine from work left a comment on my wall "Dorie, I cannot be compared". I think she was right.

I'm not ready to take the appliation down yet. I think there is a lot about myself and the way I view my friends that I need to learn from it yet.