Committing Facebook Suicide…
Before I open this debate, I need to caution, this is not a juvenile ploy to get anyone to beg me to stay on in the virtual village…
My bud and I have had a long debate about whether we should “Commit Facebook Suicide”. This modern phenomenon is fabulous, it has connected me with people I have lost touch with, it keeps me up to date with the minutae of the lives of those I love and it makes me smile. BUT, it also distracts me, I can get lost aimlessly wading through stuff, I use it to procrastinate and then there is the bit that all my thoughts, photos and things are stored and who owns them? No matter your settings, do you really know where all this is going? Yet there is this compulsion to “share”. It is all good and well with people you trust, but what about the people who have ended up on your FB, who never speak to you? The silent observers of your life? Are we encouraging voyeurs who don’t participate but who are up to date?
So the debate became could, you, would you commit FB suicide and deactivate your profile? I have friends who have. They found the interaction too impersonal, they felt like they stayed in touch with those they loved through other means. I admired their bravery. And then there are my friends who are vowing to never go on it. My friend and I were debating, do they have certain personality traits that we don’t? Is their need for privacy stronger than ours? Are we blurters who have found our forum? I guess, FB does feed my need to be sociable. I love it when I see or hear something funny and I can immediately share it with my peeps. I love that after leaving my birth country, I have this little virtual village that I can wander around in. I pondered this for a few days and decided I could commit the virtual suicide and switch it all off. But I realised with all things as it life, you need to be vigilant of your actions, don’t post anything you would not be proud of, living virtually is no different to living in the real world, not in 2011 at any rate and learning to manage this form of communication is as important as learning other forms effectively.
Finally, I laughed at the irony of the conversation when I got off the phone from having the debate and the first thing I wanted to do was go and update my status to “Should we commit Facebook suicide?”. I rest my case…
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