Blog 8 Adbusters

When I was in high school, I had a MySpace page. I do not remember why I made a MySpace page, but it was probably because everyone else had one, and I thought it would be fun. I was wrong.

I hate MySpace. The first time I created a page, I am ashamed to admit, it was PERFECT! I had a beautiful, custom-made Gothic background that my friend drew for my page; my information tables were transparent red, so they looked like stained glass; I had what I considered at the time to be the perfect mix tracks of Metal for my MySpace music player; and my profile picture was the last photograph that was taken of me in my Gothic gear, just before I left the Goth scene after becoming fed up with the commercialization of the Gothic subculture and the spawning of the Goth subculture's bastard children, the Emo and Vamp subcultures. But, I digress...

Then, there was a terminal error that wiped out my webpage, destroying what was probably a total of 50 hours of painstaking detail. All of it, wasted time. So, I created another MySpace, sent a F-U message to Tom, and promptly deleted my second MySpace page, vowing never again to get sucked into anymore stupid high school bullshit.

After I came to Davis, I was introduced to Facebook. I was told that it was a “networking site” for college students. Again, I found myself spending time constructing yet another virtual shrine to myself.

Recently, I made a conscious decision to spend less and less time checking in on Facebook or updating my status, because I realized there are more interesting things to do.

As for committing “Facebook suicide”, I need to consider what value the site still has for me as a college student. I use it to exchange information with classmates, although I also communicate with them via my cell phone. I use it to keep in contact with friends and family whose lives are too busy for the occasional phone call; I find that in college, I spend most of my time in class, studying in the library, or sleeping, so I can understand if some people have trouble keeping in touch. It keeps me updated with current events occurring at Davis, such as campus events, social events, and parties; however, between homework and sleep, I do not have a lot of time for those activities anyway. So, aside from these three networking features, I could really do without Facebook.

So, why should I not commit Facebook suicide? I my opinion, anyone who commits Facebook suicide, then writes about it, is defeating the purpose of actually committing it. Deleting oneself from a networking site, no matter the reason, is a social statement; it tells people that there is something about the site that does not agree with you. If I was to leave Facebook, I would just leave. No office memo, no two weeks notice. If anyone wanted to contact me, they have my cell number. If anyone wanted to give me shit about leaving, they can post it on my then dead webpage for the rest of the Facebook community to see; maybe they will have an epiphany halfway through writing their hate messages on my wall, and then reorganize their priorities.