I was interviewed today by a student in MMC 2100 who is writing a paper for another class about social networking. She knew I had a blog and wanted to ask me about blogging and my other use of social software.

One of the topics we discussed was the social responsibility — from a personal perspective and/or a professional perspective — that one has with social software. We agreed that everyone has expectations about how long one should have to wait to receive an answer to an e-mail. Even less time for a response to a text message. Facebook should be checked … perhaps several times a day or, for some, even once an hour.

What is the pressure like to have to be checking and updating and responding to text messages, e-mail, Twitters and Facebook. 

She said she’d tried Twitter but couldn’t think of enough to say about herself (that she wanted to report) to keep up tweeting.

Then she said, “One of my friends gave up Facebook for Lent.”

Giving up something for Lent is a sign of sacrifice and restraint.

People give up wine or chocolate or swearing. 

Now — Facebook joins the options.