I was watching the Super Bowl with friends, and the conversation meandered its way to lifehacker.com and a recent link from said Web site. This link contained a program for a free download called Digsby. At first, this program seemed heaven-sent.

Digsby combines all of your instant messaging programs, e-mails and social Web sites into one window. Right now, I have mine running AIM, Facebook chat, my Gmail and my Facebook. It’s very handy. I’ve Facebook chatted more times since I got this program than I ever have before. I don’t have to open Firefox to check my e-mail or Facebook anymore.

At first, Digsby seemed like a winner, much like the last one I downloaded, Mojo. It was not long before I found the dark side of Digsby. And what a dark side it is.

Whenever any one of my friends does anything on Facebook, I am notified. New wall post? Bubble in the bottom left corner of my screen. New profile picture? Bubble in the bottom left corner of my screen. New status? New album? Did I get a message or a friend request? Bubble in the bottom left corner of my screen.

I can’t look away from these bubbles. I find myself reading everything that everyone is doing simply by virtue of the fact that my mini-feed (and more) is now on my desktop. And sometimes I click it.

That’s the worst. It takes me straight to whatever it was that I clicked on. I don’t even go through my homepage anymore. I don’t need to. I tried to write an essay last night. It took four hours longer than it should have because of Digsby making Facebook incredibly convenient. This article is almost a day late for more than a few reasons, one of which is Digsby.

Maybe, though, the problem lies with me. Maybe I am a Facebook addict. It’s certainly possible. I mean, even before Digsby I regularly checked my Facebook three or four times each day. If that is the case, though, Digsby is like giving a brown paper bag to a homeless alcoholic. It’s giving a used syringe to a heroin addict. It’s giving an elected position to Rod Blagojevich.

Is there a plus side to this? Well, Digsby seems to be incredibly convenient. It probably isn’t, but it seems to be, and that is just as good. And hopefully I’ll learn some self-control because of this. I think they say that exposure is the surest way to deal with temptation, and if they don’t say that, I sure hope it’s true anyway. It is only through dealing with my problem that I will be able to solve it.

Or I’ll just check my Facebook so much it bores me, and I won’t want to do it anymore. This is the most likely scenario. I can live with that.