Ifear Facebook. I do not fear it as a perplexing leap in technology, the way an old dog might fear a new trick. Heck, I have people trying to “friend” me all the time. Some of them I even know.

No, I fear it for the same reason I fear pay-per-view TV channels and an addictively entertaining TV series or the help-yourself candy jar in the office. I fear the pull of anything that I know in excess is not good for me, but which I may be too weak, too lazy or too obsessive to resist.

I resist any temptation that might end up doing me more harm than good; that might make me more of an observer in life than a participant. As it is, there are too few hours to do what I want to do, instead of what I need to do. As best as I can, I try to spend that time reading, doing something with the family, playing tennis, coaxing awful noises out of my guitar or having face-to-face conversation with other human beings. That is why Facebook—or anything that pulls you in and pulls you away from real life and real people— scares me.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a member of the Rotary Phone Society. There is no turning back the tide of technology, from smart phones to digital cameras. There is no reason to try. At best, technology makes life easier and more convenient. A quarter- century ago, I kept my vast record collection stacked in wooden crates in my single-guy apartment. I now can hold the same amount of music in a listening device barely bigger than a matchbook. Who needs the crates?

It is not technology that frightens me. What frightens me is me. I know how easy it is to confuse diversion with substance; the virtual with reality;a distraction with a pursuit, project or passion. Granted, everybody needs mindless down time. I just do not want it to take up all of my free time.

Technology is nothing new. Neither is the pseudo-narcotic effect of various diversions. There was no greater technological leap, entertainment division, in the past century than television. It had hardly been invented when people, in derogatory reference to its hypnotic effect, called it “the boob tube.” Critics claimed that it would intellectually numb teenagers, erode the art of conversation and delay child social development. All of which, of course, came true —for those who let it. Parents—good ones, anyway—limit how much of it their kids can watch.

Which brings me to a fact about Facebook that pulled my internal fire alarm. The social networking site has grown from its introduction five years ago to 350 million worldwide users today—the number doubling in the past year. Here is what is scary: According to the company, the average Facebook user spends nearly an hour a day on the site.

Whether a user is connecting with old friends, keeping up with current ones, playing games or linking to information, the distraction can be habit-forming. And that may not be a good thing.

Once-regular users have told me they cut back on Facebook, or cut it off, when they realized it was stealing large chunks of their time. It grabbed hours they used to spend reading, taking a walk, working out, hanging out. That is the dilemma of new technology: You control it, or it controls you. It adds to your life, or detracts from it. If I fear that the outcome is in doubt, that it is a struggle I may not win, then I do not play. So, no, I will not be “friending” anybody anytime soon.

Technology is a wonderful thing, when it works for you. There is no turning back from Facebook, and whatever comes next. I just hope there are not people who wake up one day, and realize they have been Twittering their lives away.