Web 2.0 Suicide

Evan Ratliff, a reporter from Wired Magazine, attempted to disappear.  He packed up and disappeared with expectation that he would be found.  It was part of a contest promoted by Wired that prompted readers to find Ratliff using various Social Media.  Ratliff would leave clues to his whereabouts by Tweeting or upload images to Facebook.  He didn't make it easy.  He created accounts under pseudonyms and fostered posting in a deliberate attempt to throw friends and followers alike of his trail.  The winner would receive $5,000 for finding Ratliff.  A true Twitterverse Master.  

This whole gag was prompted on the idea that one can't just disappear anymore.  There are too many ways for any teenager with a MySpace account to track you down.  It is now to diffcult to simply vanish.  

Anytime a difficulty arises, it creates a marketable product  Take a look at Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

 The place to go when you want to virtually kill yourself.   It's sole purpose is to help you eradicate your online profiles and your connections.  It promises are return to your "real" life.  We could be seeing the marketing of a potential mass exodous of social slaves to the promise land of "real" life.  

Highly unlikely.  Not mention, it is not total death.  Your "real" friends are still going to be posting pictures and videos of you.  To completely die online means to eradicate your Amazon and Ebay accounts.  But the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine doesn't let help you with that.  When someone dies, there are pictures, videos, bills all left behind, and each record has present and real impact.  With these social media tools, you can't avoid getting published in some way, whether you are in control or not.  

So, this is a warning to all unborn children out there.  If you don't want to personified on the social webs, make sure to run away as soon as you get out of the womb.  Then again, if someone just saw a new born pick up and run off, you know they are going to post that on Twitter.  And the teenage kid with the camera phone is surely going to upload your escape on YouTube.  It seems the greatest effort to stay of the grid may make you the most viral entity on the internet.