Facebook Suicide

I believe that the author raises a strong argument that constant, persistent Facebook checking, viewing, and chatting reflects the standard pass time of the people born in the 80s and 90s. The urge to present personal facts on one's profile through status updates and the vanity gained when other friends write comments on one's dialogue wall have become conditioned pleasure responses for the "Look at Me Generation." (bonus points for esoteric inside jokes) However, I do not agree with the author in thinking that a "facebook suicide" is the best approach this narcissistic tendency.

From a professional business and influence-based networking perspective, Facebook offers a dimension of communication unparalleled by any business card, phone number, or resume. I have seen how peers (people of similar ages, professions, and geographical location) influence each other through simple lines of text. Proper courtesy like congratulating a marriage or writing a birthday message have significant social importance. But even more central to my opposition to the author's action is that by forgetting to send a congratulation message or not even having a facebook profile is seen as a contemporatry social faux pas. I typically raise questions regarding people who don't have facebook profiles because of this fact. I understand that some people may not have one because of reasons like facebook-burnout and I respect that decision. But then I also think that the same person may not have developed the necessary multimedia social skills to operate in social networking.