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What is Facebook suicide, is it an end of a virtual life?

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:February 6, 2009

For me, it’s about self-control and effort. I got rid of my Facebook for a month just to see what kind of effect it had on my life. It had none. It’s possible to mix real life and the internet in a healthy, productive way. You can read a nice interview on TechRadar with Tom Hodginson, English writer and thinker “Why you should commit Facebook suicide And do something less boring instead, like go to the pub”

Facebook, what had seemed like an innocent way of reconnecting with old friends and colleagues had opened a huge can of worms and damaging relationship with people close by. With recent changes, Facebook is now both a personal and professional social networking site. Facebook user profiles are searchable through Google and anyone has access to your songs, friends, pictures, and other very, very personal information.

I believe that deleting your profile is an overreaction. Why not just edit/censor it for all possible audiences? One shouldn’t put anything on the Internet with their real name on it unless they are comfortable having anyone read, because that’s exactly what will happen–eventually!

Furthermore, this younger generation (that is in college now) are used to living their life online, and eventually having a drunk, half-naked picture of oneself floating around on the net will no longer be an issue even to the leaders of this generation (just as having a tattoo will be normal for the soccer moms of the next decade.)

I do understand that in Facebook, your friends can “tag” you in (possibly compromising) photos, and leave embarrassing comments on your page; you just have to be vigilant about this, and delete these (or even delete the “friend” who is doing this!)

Once we know such options exist we can avail of the privacy settings facebook has to offer. Unfortunately facebook won’t inform “stupid” people on the privacy options which it offers and it is these “stupid” people who are the most susceptible to this method of “demand generation”. But hey that doesn’t mean we shut facebook down. As with all forms of advertising it is up to the individual/consumer to decide whether or not he wants the product.

Facebook is perhaps a more evasive type of advertising than we have seen before as it uses our peers to pressure us into purchasing; and it approaches us when we’re in a comfortable state of mind whilst communicating with friends. But again once we are aware of this it should not be a problem.

Concerning Facebook, the only grudge I have against it is the huge amount of widget notices I receive to install. I ignore them. However sometimes, a request to install an app comes in as if sent by a friend in facebook, so before I accept it, I ask the person if indeed he/she sent me a request. Half the time the asnwer they didn´t. It seems as if Facebook “lies” about someone sending requests.

Why not just set up your own web site, and host it where you like? Why go to some corporation who will screen and filter everything and monitor and OWN the content that you publish? They can bring it all down on a whim – so why participate? Set up your own web server instead!

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