Will Facebook really shut down March 15?

Obviously not. Facebook is, for better or worse, here to stay.

You wouldn’t know that to hear the Internet tell it. April Fool’s seems to have come early this year. There’s a virulent rumor going around that Facebook will shut down forever on March 15. Imagine life without Facebook. No constant status updates. No memes. No Farmville.

The Weekly World News reports that founder Mark Zuckerberg wants his old life back and plans to shutter the site on March 15. This from the same people who told us Michele Obama is pregnant.

Now that we’ve all had a good chuckle at this silly rumor, take a moment and wonder what you’d do without Facebook. If they really went down on the Ides of March, would you be ready to kiss the social networking giant good-bye?

There’s been a lot of press lately about what to do with your Facebook account when you die. What happens if it goes the other way? What would you do if you survive Facebook?

One of the things that sets Facebook apart from other social networking sites is the way it connects families. It’s the only site that keeps me up to date on what’s happening with my grandmother, and my cousin who I haven’t seen in years.

It’s the family piece that I would want to replace if Facebook went down. The games and apps and fan pages I could live without. I wouldn’t miss knowing what my neighbors ate for breakfast. I mainly use Twitter for keeping up with friends and Flickr for online photos. My own memories are saved in my personal blog, not my Facebook profile. One more thing I surely would not miss: “the sky is falling” rumors like this one, which travel at lightning speed over the social networking monster Facebook has created.

But I’d miss the way Facebook connects me to family. I rarely even speak to my cousins, but I get to watch little snippets of their lives on Facebook. I know what events my mom’s music shop is hosting and what my sister is up to on Saturday night. Facebook gives me a sense of their lives beyond the face they put on for family gatherings. Even better, I use Facebook to keep up with what my teenage stepson is doing and thinking. Not only do I feel closer to him as a parent, but his Facebook status updates are always funny and smart. The sort of thing that makes my day a little better to read.

What would you miss most if Facebook went down? What would you be delighted to never have to see again?

Photo: Nikke Lindqvist

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