Editor's note: This article appeared in the March 23, 2009, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.
Along with the usual vices like sweets, cigarettes and red meat, teens and adults alike have made Facebook one of the most common things to abstain from for the 2009 Lent season - a testament to its popularity and perhaps to the public's dependency on virtual and technology-based relationships. The trend kicked off with Pope Benedict XVI and other leaders in the Catholic community encouraging Lenten observers to try to cut back on high-tech addictions to texting, BlackBerrys and social networking sites, specifically Facebook. To see the impact of this call to action, one needs only to Google "give up Facebook for Lent" and wait for the copious pages to appear on the screen - from articles attesting to its widespread popularity to tips on how to make it through the 40 days and 40 nights without caving in or falling off the map.
So what does it mean for social networking sites that their products are viewed as a necessary evil - hard to escape but impractical to go without? According The Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C., nearly half of all 18-24-year-olds visit social networking sites like Facebook at least daily, compared to just 13 percent of Internet users overall. It remains to be seen whether those who observe a low-tech Lent will see the benefits of their sacrifices and, if so, how the tech-based companies who rely on them will be affected.