had a long conversation with anne last night about the pros and cons of online social networking (read: facebook). i’d say i’m a “facebook moderate”*– i don’t show all of my activities in my feed, but otherwise my information is available to my friends and networks (though everything’s different since facebook changed it’s damn privacy settings and i can’t figure out how to do anything anymore ::tears::)– whereas anne’s more of a “facebook liberal.”*
still trying to sort out exactly what is my problem with being totally “virtual”– it’s a combination of a lot of things, including privacy concerns, information overload, and the trending away from real human interaction…
but when it comes down to it, i think my problem is: it’s another identity that i have to keep up with– one that’s even more easily misinterpreted an misjudged. hell, i can’t even keep up with the maintenance my actual identity… :P
anyway, on NPR this morning they mentioned a danish (?) service called the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. it allows you to quickly erase your facebook, twitter, myspace, and linked in accounts.
they do all these cute things, like urging people to “Commit NOW,” listing facebook (strikethrough) as a partner, and showing messages like, “Sorry, Machine is currently busy with killing someone else.” NPR said they also replace your facebook picture with a noose when you delete your account (teehee), but couldn’t find it on their website.
i briefly thought about “committing,” but… facebook has its merits, as crappy as it’s getting. and besides, i’m not ready to die. i have so much more to give!
*terms fabricated by me.
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you’re so cute. i’ve also been thinking a lot about pros and cons of online social networks and started to cut back on some of them. i deleted my twitter account, and keep my LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. I think I only do it because I can ‘stay in touch’ with many people more efficiently. But then again… I don’t think it makes a difference in anyone’s life if I comment on their wall vs. talking to them on the phone or something similar… *sigh*
I think the REAL reason why I keep it is because I have been found by many friends from elementary school through high school that I wouldn’t have talked to otherwise. But… is that really necessary, or just taking time out of real person-to-person relationships. This stuff is complicated!
Comment by Omar January 7, 2010 @ 10:39 pmcomplicated indeed: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/fashion/07breakup.html?src=tp
Comment by flyingtotoro January 8, 2010 @ 3:04 am