I told all my friends as well as myself that I would never get involved in the phenomenon called MySpace. So after about a year I finally gave in…a little. I told my friends they could make me a profile and do whatever they wanted with it. I do not know how to use it or what the big deal is with everyone using it, but I figured it would be interesting to find out. Since you must have an account to search other people’s sites and interact with the site in general I figured I would just let my friends do the labor, which I guess is half the fun.
After reading a blog concerning MySpace and how it is sometimes very sexually oriented it made me want to explore this fad even more. Again, this is just another outlet for sex. After only three days people were asking to be my friend and either saying I was attractive or wanted to know personal information about myself. I do not feel it is unsafe for someone like me who has little time to be on the site or take it that seriously. For those who are younger and spend more time at home and on the internet I could see this site as a potential threat. When you’re a young teenager you do not know much about yourself or anybody else and it seems very cool to meet other people around the country. With all that excitement it can be easy to trust strangers online even though they may not seem to be strangers after a while. MySpace definitely has the potential to be a hook-up spot for different people to meet in real life and even engage in sex.
Just look at most of the members. Many of the guys have no shirts on and many of the girls are wearing provocative clothing. When I was at my friend’s house last night she was going through some of the sites of some people that she knew. Three out of the four people she looked at lied about their age and stated they were at least three years older than they actually were. Not only is this giving false information, but it could lead to having sex with a minor. I know I am being extreme with that last statement, but in the back of our minds we all know that some percent of the people on MySpace have many or all intentions of simply meeting people for casual sex.
Like any other sites on the internet that deal with people connections there is always that safety hazard of actually meeting that person in public or private who seems attractive and normal on the internet, but is actually not what they perceived. This is one of the sites that parents should be monitoring or forbidding to those underage or not responsible enough to know how to maturely handle the site. But I do feel that this site is actually a benefit to some. I know many of my friends have kept in contact with people from high school that they were only friends with in high school. You know what I am talking about…those who you perceive to be best friends in school with, but once summer or winter vacation hits you do not hang out or call each other. You are really only friends within the confines of the school. Anyways, MySpace is a great way to keep in contact with those people and search for them to see what they have been up to.
I believe that MySpace is too popular to start to control and limit to reduce risking unsafe encounters. The only thing that one can do is trust no one on the internet whom you have not yet met in real life. Parents should either forbid their child to have an account until they are of age or mature enough to know the consequences. Other than that I feel this site can be entertaining and fun as long as one does not spend their entire day fixated on making the most perfect profile with the most updated backgrounds and pictures because we all have better things to do than sit at the computer all day.
