Here's mashable.com's take on it:The concept is essentially this: delete 10 of your Facebook friends and get a free Whopper. Each time you remove someone, that action is broadcast to your news feed - apparently, not a big deal to users so far, as more than 50,000 friends have already been sacrificed.While Burger King's effort is mostly about quick hit marketing and getting some press (result: success!), they might actually be onto something. As our networks on social networking sites grow and grow with people we barely know, the value of them deteriorates - to the point that removing 10 "friends" for a free sandwich actually seems like a reasonable proposition.
Of course, we can easily puff out our cheeks (or whatever the 'virtual' version is - there must be an emoticon that does that?) and bemoan the breakdown of society, but I suspect the truth is rather more subtle...
It's true (surely beyond argument) that we hook up with people via social networking sites that are beyond the bounds of what we'd traditionally call "friends", but that doesn't necessarily make the contacts pointless or hypocritical - just different.
A good 'stop-and-think' moment, though - what are the 'ethics' of social networks? Do we care how someone else feels about being 'dropped' on facebook, or 'blocked' on twitter?
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