Blog 8- Facebook Suicide

I have a facebook profile, and though I can relate to some of the things that Carmen Joy King mentioned in her article “Facebook Suicide” I thought some of it was a little overdramatic. Granted, I have become one of those people that coincidentally have a Facebook tab in my browser ready to go or I find myself bee lining to Facebook as a means of procrastination or boredom. Some people may use their profiles to create “the best versions” of themselves, and there are others who simply use it as a sort of journal. When I said that King was being slightly overdramatic, I was referring to how she related deactivating or cancelling your Facebook page is like committing suicide. Although Facebook has become the primary means of communication in our generation (aside from cell phones and texting), and it may seem that deleting your Facebook page is equivalent to erasing yourself from the social world. Personally, I would be able to release myself from Facebook’s grip. I feel that if I did it would force me and people who genuinely want to keep in contact with me to stop hiding behind their computer screens, semi-witty comments that probably take them hours to come up with, and their emoticons. Without Facebook we would gain more personal relationships, like the ones we had back in the day because we are forced to meet face to face or hold an audible conversation. What would we lose? We would probably miss out on random inside jokes, pictures that were taken last night, and the latest dirt on people you went to school with. I would not mind passing up on that. My jokes are funnier in person anyway, and I do not need to watch the dysfunctional couple’s bickering all over my news feed. However, I would run the risk of losing all the pictures that I posted and the pictures my friends have posted of good times we had together. Granted they can send them to my through e-mail or print them and send them (ancient technology I know). It would just be sad to lose all the pictures and the memories.
In the beginning I said that my Facebook is more like my journal. I have never finished a diary or a journal. Facebook is the closest thing that I have had that is similar to one. I occasionally look back at the things that I said when I was going through tough times or good times. Small things like that take you back in time to events you may have forgotten. That is one thing that I would be scared of losing by deleting my facebook, aside from that…I can let it go.
I agree that some people have taken social networking to a narcissistic level where everything…EVERYTHING is about them. With the self taken profile pictures that rotate every week and the statuses that detail every waking moment of their day from how spicy their toothpaste was to how much lint is on their sheets. Seriously…people do not care. Obsessive Facebook people yearn to have someone comment on their activities, but rarely ever make an attempt to connect with others. Maybe Facebook is just bringing out the selfish side in everyone. I agree with King that our generation is appropriately named “Generation Me,” people are less inclined to reach out and try to understand someone, although they demand that kind of understanding from everyone else.
Everything in moderation my friends. The affects of Facebook suicide is applicable to those who have lost control of Facebook, and have let it consume them. I would say that if I were to delete my Facebook tonight I would not consider it Facebook suicide it would be more like Facebook relief.