Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

There is an online web application called “Web 2.0 Suicide Machine” whereby you can completely delete your online presence from social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

The application launched just before Christmas on December 19, and has since been responsible for over 1,000 virtual deaths – severing over 80,000 Facebook friendships and removing a staggering 276,000 Twitter tweets!

It sounds a little extreme, but people love it! There are thousands of people waiting to have their online selves deleted.

Users can even add last words, ranging from ”Goodbye cruel world” to “Thank you microblogging. You are, in fact, totally useless”. In general, I think people are seeing this as a good thing. I mean, you could probably spend every waking minute of the day by checking your Facebook, Twitter and Stumbling things on StumbleUpon… And people are stalking other people on Facebook, and checking their boyfriend/girlfriend/spouses’ walls etc. Actually, a few years ago, I was out shopping and some guy came up to me and said “You’re Jane’s friend… I recognize you from Facebook” .. I was like OMG, are you kidding me?! Where do you expect to end up by saying that to someone.. I mean it just makes you sound like a weirdo. even if it was a cute guy, you’d still think twice.. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.. maybe the guy had a photographic memory?! who knows!!

The number of people wanting to do this social networking suicide thing is making the big cats at Facebook nervous. Earlier this month, Facebook blocked the suicide machine from accessing their data, but the number of online social suicides has continued to increase. Facebook has over 350 million users, so they don’t *really* have anything to worry about.. But they do sense a threat!

Maybe the famous people who vow to stop tweeting etc, should give this a go .. ahem, Tila Tequila…..

Would you consider doing this? Do you find social networking is all-consuming? Let me know!