While many consider online social networks and discussion boards tools that have enriched their lives, some are less than enamored of these new ways to reach out and touch someone - so much so that they'd rather end the game. For these people, technology has now come to the rescue with a Web site that lets them erase all traces of their online identity - the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine.
This Dr. Jack Kevorkian for the overly networked was created by a new media lab in Rotterdam called Moddr. According to a report on the TechCrunch blog, all a user has to do is provide the site with his or her account names for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, et al., and it does the rest by executing a script that methodically deletes all friends and contacts, erases all Tweets and messages, deletes photos, and resets user names and passwords so that the user cannot ever log back into their accounts. Finally, it adds the now-nonexistent user to its own group (on Facebook: Social Network Suiciders) and lets the dearly departed leave a suicide note.
Users can watch their virtual lives vanish before their eyes via a Flash application that runs while the script executes. Afterwards, the site's creator offers this suggestion for the newly deceased: "Try calling some friends, take a walk in a park or buy a bottle of wine and start enjoying your real life again."
With tongue planted only slightly in cheek, the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine touts itself as the best way to "sign out forever" and lose touch with "all those people you didn't really care about."
Needless to say, the Suicide Machine was built on the premise that online connectivity diminishes us and takes us away from our real-world lives. This article reports on a new study that argues just the opposite.
Written by Sandy Smith
Exclusive to HULIQ.com
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