Wednesday, January 18, 2006

MySpace

Hey old people! Have you been to MySpace.com--the place where teens everywhere post everything about everyone hot and not?

Here's an example of a personal friend of mine--B Smiddy he calls himself.

I've given some thought to these pages. Some people feel that they are terrible because they limit interaction--real, human interaction. Other people they are just the New Millenium way to communicate. At least you know where your kids are!

My concerns are that sickos know way too much about innocent kids. I won't point you to some of the spaces, but essentially all the information you could ever want about some kids are nicely packaged and so easily accessible it's scary. Another kid of a friend of mine has so much information, you could drive to her house with mapquest without any trouble at all. You'd have to get by her Daddy's shotgun, but still....

Beside the nutjob factor, what is presented on these pages really represent what the kid wants to portray himself or herself as--kinda like a movie star. You can read fifty profiles about a Hollywood-type, but do you know them? On one level, the answer is yes. On another, not at all. That's these websites. Without advantage of voice inflection or expressions or body language or experience you make a judgement about this person. Who know's if its the truth or just plain fiction?

You might say, that that is the problem with the Internet, but it may be the benefit, too.

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