this morning i heard three different references to MySpace on the Today show. not one was positive. and it brought to mind something i've wondered about for a while now - what is the real point of MySpace?
on one hand, it's no big deal. it's just a dumb site where people can show off how many friends they have and what kind of music they listen to and leave an array of messages for each other and track down names and faces they haven't thought about for years. on the other hand, when MySpace pages seem to be a primary source of major clues after murders, school shootings, abductions and disappearances, you have to wonder about the quality of the site, and the purpose.
i had a page for a while. i'm not even sure why - because my friends did? but soon i found myself wasting a lot of time - sometimes hours - just clicking, clicking, clicking. it was more of a compulsion than something i did because i was actually interested in it. it was another way to procrastinate at work, another thing to fill up time. and so one day - i can't remember when, maybe a year ago - i thought to myself, 'this is ridiculous. how old AM i?' and deleted my profile. i was done.
i know the site has its benefits. maybe someone has found long-lost family members because of it. unknown musicians are able to promote their music, and i'm sure some companies benefit from the advertising opportunities. but ultimately, i just don't think anything good can come of a site like that. maybe this doesn't apply to people under the age of 21. until then you're supposed to waste time doing stupid things. but, in the real world, if you're not just wasting time on MySpace, you're pseudo-stalking someone, or picking the corresponding smiley face to go with your "mood," or spending precious time tinkering with a layout, or cropping the perfect/sexiest/funniest picture of yourself when you could actually be doing something productive and creative with your time. right?
i don't know. maybe i just get the willies more easily than the average person. i was in college when the whole chat room thing got big in the late '90s and it was so easy to get tangled up that mess. i know MySpace - and Friendster and Facebook - isn't the same, but it isn't all that different either. even after i deleted my profile, i kept my MySpace account open, just because. but i closed it for good this morning. i don't begrudge anyone their MySpace habits - it's a free cyber world - i, for one, am just finished with the mindless clicking.
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