We’ve all done it, or at least considered it. It’s rebellious. The idea is so…. Rogue. It’s like moving hundreds of miles away. It’s liberation for some, and a major loss for others.

Image from suicidemachine.org

The mass defriending, purging or cleansing of your Twitter followers, or Facebook and MySpace friends, and LinkedIn Connections is what I’m talking about. Like a nuclear option, or as some hippies say, ‘Getting off the grid’.

A new site dubbed The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, has made that process a little more expedient.

I did it once, to my MySpace account. Not because my reputation was sullied, but because I got sick of MySpace’s notoriously long load time. But it felt great anyway.

It was inevitable. Anything that booms, has adjustments and detractors. My former boss told me of stories of secretaries that refused to switch from typewriters to computers. Way to be on the wrong side of history! But you can’t blame them with the online dis-inhibition effect and the ruining of reputations online.

Is it anything to worry about? Not really. Social media and social media suicide campaigns aren’t in direct competition. Like a candidate in an election that boycotts his own race, he/she will  not win, but merely make a statement about the election itself.

Don’t tell the Iranian government, but dissent is an important bumper on the rails of ambition. It is never glamorous or popular, but it serves a purpose.  See the following:

“Even when dissenters don’t have enough votes to to change The Court’s (referring to the US Supreme Court) opinion, they still affect the process.” – Ori Brafman form Sway: The Irresistible  Pull of Irrational Behavior

“It makes the other person take account of the point. They have to answer it or they have to take it into account” - Justice Stephen Breyer, US Supreme Court

These guard rails of logic are helpful, but dubbing it suicide might be a bit much. It is possible to be a “Negative Nancy”. I remember a student that would almost ubiquitously start any response with “It’ll never work…” What kind of help does that bring to the table? Well depending on what follows. Answer it, or account for it I say.

And much like a repressive regime, unfortunately Facebook has threatened legal action against the The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. Especially since the young CEO of Facebook just said that privacy online is not to be expected anymore as a ‘social norm’, you would think he could take a lesson in timing.

Maybe the solution for Facebook is to take a look at Google and apply the motto “Don’t Be Evil” a little more generously.

Go on, let them ‘commit 2.0 suicide’. Why not? They won’t be tweeting, posting or updating about it now will they?

Also see: Social Media Backlash?