Stop Blaming Facebook!

A few weeks ago, I saw was reading some news on the internet and came across a couple of articles about some disgusting, horrendous acts of violence.  Here’s an excerpt from the article about a Hyderabad techie who is beaten to death by his girlfriends’ parents:

The victim, Satish, was murdered by his lover Lavanya's father Yadaiah and his associate, Raju Goud, on February 1 after abducting him from Ameerpet, police said on Thursday.

While the two killers were caught, Lavanya, her mother Manikyam and cousin Sravan, who misled the police by concealing facts about the killing, are still at large, Saroorangar ACP J. Amarender Reddy said.

Here’s another one about a couple in Tennessee, USA who were killed for simply ‘unfriending’ someone:

A Tennessee couple who 'unfriended' a woman on Facebook were murdered in their home by the jilted woman's father and another man, police said on Thursday. 

What do both of these have in common?  Facebook!  Yep, that social networking tool that everybody wants to hate but most of us still use anyway.  The first article was shamelessly entitled “Facebook friendship costs techie's life” as though Facebook was the cause of the murder of the poor techie instead of the girl’s parents.  In the article, the guy not only met the girl in Facebook but also several times in real life too.  Even though the girl misled both the guy and the police… and even though her dad and a bunch of goondas beat the poor guy to death, the article somehow blames a social networking tool as the root cause of the murder.  No one held the girl's parents or the social system responsible.

As for the other article entitled “Facebook 'unfriending' led to double murder”, this article blames the Facebook “unfriending” feature as the cause of the couples’ death.  It doesn’t blame the scumbag loose cannons (pun intended) who pulled the trigger… the ones whose egos are so fragile that a small thing like a Facebook unfriending causes them to go into a mad fit of rage and go on a killing spree! No-o-o-o… once again, it’s the fault of social networking!

There was yet another article that blamed Facebook as the reason for one-third of the divorces across the globe.  This one was the worst! It didn't blame the couples' lack of communication, extramarital affairs, or any other root causes.  No-o-o-o, it would be too much to account for the fact that divorces used to happen long before FB.  Nope... once again, Facebook was to blame... and this time for one-third of the world's couples' inability to keep their marriages together.

So what are we, as society, supposed to do?!  Live in fear and reluctantly accept any friend request so that our lives will be spared for another day?!?!  Or maybe… just give up our Facebook accounts altogether out of fear of being killed or divorced?!?! Better yet, let’s go over to Palo Alto, CA and arrest Mark Zuckerburg and shut down Facebook completely!  That’ll solve all our society's problems, right?!?! 

Give me a break!!!  Anyone who thinks that Facebook is at fault in any way… or that not having Facebook will prevent divorces or these senseless acts of violence is kidding themselves! These unfortunate events have been happening for decades, long before the era of social networking sites.  In the case of the Hyderabad techie, do you really think that the techie guy would have been spared if he had met the girl in some other way besides FB?!  

It’s time to stop using Facebook as a convenient scapegoat for the ills of society.  Whether it’s heartbreak, murder or divorce it’s time to take action and show responsibility instead of just sitting back and shamelessly passing the blame.