Facebook Suicide- Blog #8

Until 6 months ago I had no Facebook account. At the pressure and disbelief of my roommate I created one and have been addicted ever since. Upon reading the article "Facebook Suicide" by Carmen Joy King, I immediately began to reflect upon the similarities between her criticisms and mine in regards to the overpowering Facebook phenomenon. The suggestion of Facebook suicide, while to the common user seems quite intimidating and socially damaging, is in its own way quite appealing. Every day, I, like so many others, spend hours looking through people's pictures who I barely know, saying hi to people I would otherwise have no interest in contacting, and rearranging my profile; all in the hopes of presenting a better cyber-image of myself. In the article, King discusses the narcissistic aspect of Facebook, and the constant thoughts of "Me" and "I". Never before have people been able to so readily present the ultimate image of themselves to those they deem important in their lives. Instead of focusing on connecting and actually interacting with friends and family, Facebook offers a self-centered, self-obsessed outlet of social networking. The more I think about how consuming and really how trivial it is, the more I sympathize with king's decision to commit cyber suicide. In doing so, I would merely risk the judgment of friends who's definition of popularity are linked with a profile page, and the resulting separation from my list of friends. The idea is quite appealing in that the cattiness and petty day to day discussions of shopping trips, boys and school would all be erased from my life. Despite all these tempting aspects to eliminating my profile, I admit that I enjoy it far too much to do away with it; if for no other purpose, Facebook serves to fill the moments in my life when I've convinced myself I have nothing better to be doing.