Father promises teen daughter $200 to quit Facebook for 5 months

A father-daughter duo have signed a Facebook Deactivation Agreement, as per which the latter (the teenage daughter) would have to stay completely off the social network for a period of five months. The catch? She'd be paid $200 upon successful completion.

Paul Baier, VP Sustainability Consulting and Research at Groom Energy Solutions, shared on his blog Practical Sustainability, a photo of the agreement with his 14-year old daughter, wherein she (his daughter) has stated clearly that her Facebook account would be suspended from 2. 4. 2013 to 6 .26. 2013 (5 months). In return, her dad (Paul Baier) would pay her $50 in April and $150 in June, if she is successful. The agreement goes on to state that Paul Baier will have access to her Facebook account to change the password and to deactivate the account. This is to prevent her from reactivating her account in the future. 

Facebook Deactivation Agreement

Interestingly, Baier, has revealed in his blog that the idea was his daughter's and he supports it fully. On his post, Baier has earned a mixed bag of reactions from people the world over. While some consider it to be a good idea to begin with, there are some who believe that there may be a way to flout that. 

All in all, the teen will earn herself a five-month break from the social networking hustle-bustle. We're living in a particularly different time, wherein while we have technology making our lives simpler, our relationships are fast turning as virtual as they are real, or may be more. The perils of excessive dependence on social networking aren’t unheard of. 

Most of us share more about our lives on virtual "private" spaces, rather than doing so in the real scenario. We have our sets of school friends, college friends, neighborhood acquaintances, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and the list goes on. The order mentioned in the previous line may draw some smirks, but it also makes us realise that our lives are moving on to the social space that the likes of Facebook, Twitter and the others are carving out. 

A certain Oxford University professor claimed that social networks were leading us to a situation of identity crisis – meaning many wished for more online attention. Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, believes that a lot of one’s life is being shared on social networks, leading to identity crisis. Adding to her understanding of the topic, she states that people found the need to update their social networks about every detail of their life. Quoting her, “What concerns me is the banality of so much that goes out on Twitter. Why should someone be interested in what someone else has had for breakfast? It reminds me of a small child (saying): “Look at me Mummy, I'm doing this”, “Look at me Mummy I'm doing that.”