Committing Facebook suicide

A colleague has committed Facebook suicide, and decided to de-Twitter herself as well in one fell swoop.  She was shocked at the reaction of friends, who regarded it as an astonishing betrayal.  One was particularly offended and when questioned, said: “Well, it’s made me look as though I have lost a friend now and people count, you know...”” And this is a woman approaching forty.

We are told often that social networking is an equal forum, and a great way to communicate with young people, spread powerful messages, and reach people in a way that traditional media has not allowed us to.   The way Twitter has been used in Iran is a fantastic example of the fluid and egalitarian way in which the medium is best used.  Competitive social networking is one of the side effects of this fast-growing phenomenon.   One mobile phone service provider is announcing deals for anyone with more than twenty friends; hardly a difficult task for most of us with contact lists in the hundreds but for a fragile teenager, judgements like this matter a great deal.