From Facebook and MySpace to Twitter, some Iowans say keeping track of their online life is consuming their real one.
"I just kind of got to the point where I felt like I was checking it too much," said Jason Hill of Clive. Hill relies on computers to make his living, but lately the Network Analyst says managing his Facebook account had become a fulltime job. "You couldn't log in one day without having to clean up all this other garbage that didn't really pertain to the relationships you have with your friends," he said.
So this month Jason sent out an explanation to his friends, and then logged out for the last time. "I was surprised. A lot of my friends actually contacted me as they got word I was getting off Facebook, and they were supportive and saying they were thinking about doing the same thing," he said.
Many people are doing the same thing. Its prompted a new website offering to end people's online lives. The site Web 2.0 Suicide Machine claims to give people back their real life by wiping out their social networking accounts. Sites like Facebook aren't happy and have started blocking the service.
Still Professor Michael Bugeja says rethinking ones online life is something everyone should do. "Think about everything you do from iPhones to Second Life to social networking or Twitter, its doing two things at once: surveilling you and selling to you," said Bugeja, the Director of the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University. He says the sites were not created for the purpose of socializing, but to collect information for advertisers. The sites usually explain this in the terms of service, something few users actually bother to read, he said.
Then there's the privacy risk. "How many times do we have best friends we confide personal things to only to find out they betrayed us? That happens multifold on the internet," said Bugeja. He suggests only posting things online you'd want broadcast on TV.
But breaking the addiction to these sites isn't easy. "You kind of want to log in everyday because its what you've been used to doing," said Hill. So along with his Facebook account, Hill has also traded in his iPhone. "I was using my iPhone to check my Facebook. So it was kind of kill two birds with one stone." He says he's simply going back to "old-fashioned email."
"I just kind of got to the point where I felt like I was checking it too much," said Jason Hill of Clive. Hill relies on computers to make his living, but lately the Network Analyst says managing his Facebook account had become a fulltime job. "You couldn't log in one day without having to clean up all this other garbage that didn't really pertain to the relationships you have with your friends," he said.
So this month Jason sent out an explanation to his friends, and then logged out for the last time. "I was surprised. A lot of my friends actually contacted me as they got word I was getting off Facebook, and they were supportive and saying they were thinking about doing the same thing," he said.
Many people are doing the same thing. Its prompted a new website offering to end people's online lives. The site Web 2.0 Suicide Machine claims to give people back their real life by wiping out their social networking accounts. Sites like Facebook aren't happy and have started blocking the service.
Still Professor Michael Bugeja says rethinking ones online life is something everyone should do. "Think about everything you do from iPhones to Second Life to social networking or Twitter, its doing two things at once: surveilling you and selling to you," said Bugeja, the Director of the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University. He says the sites were not created for the purpose of socializing, but to collect information for advertisers. The sites usually explain this in the terms of service, something few users actually bother to read, he said.
Then there's the privacy risk. "How many times do we have best friends we confide personal things to only to find out they betrayed us? That happens multifold on the internet," said Bugeja. He suggests only posting things online you'd want broadcast on TV.
But breaking the addiction to these sites isn't easy. "You kind of want to log in everyday because its what you've been used to doing," said Hill. So along with his Facebook account, Hill has also traded in his iPhone. "I was using my iPhone to check my Facebook. So it was kind of kill two birds with one stone." He says he's simply going back to "old-fashioned email."
