MySpace
I’d like to take a moment to air out some feelings about one of the biggest internet phenomenons since, well, AOL Instant Messenger. No, it’s not Facebook... or eHarmony... or even eBay. I’m talking about MySpace. How did I come to realize what a huge thing it is? 1) When I read that founders Tom DeWolfe and Chris Anderson sold MySpace for $580 million.2) There’s a Wiki eHow called something like "How to battle a MySpace addiction.
Yeah, you can say that’s pretty monumental
Currently I have 137 friends comprised from these backgrounds... college, high school, friends of friends, bands, youth group, work, church, a few people I’ve never met, movies, and insert anything else here.
The upside is that you can pretty much find anyone on there. It’s pretty cool to get back in touch with people you never thought you’d reconnect with. See what their life is like now, and get that fix for nostalgia. I’ve even discovered a few old crushes, only to hit the reality that they’re now either engaged or married. (It beats wondering if they’re still ‘out there’ somewhere!)
Here’s what I don’t understand. At least once a day I get a random, at times sexually explicit message from a guy who lives in El Paso. The content ranges from "wat up?" to "Damn, you’re FINE." Charming, I know. Out of curiosity, I’ll check out their profile... only to be terrified. Why? I’ve come to question why guys will include the following on their MySpace page, which is supposed to be enticing...
1) Excessive profanity (ESPECIALLY if it's in his username or headline)
2) Instead of the "Online Now" thing... there's something like "Pimpin' it"
3) His background is a Playboy picture/Beyonce Knowles wearing gold lame/Pinup girl
4) Favorite activities are: partying it up! Getting with the ladies! Meeting hot women!
5) The about me section is unintelligible
6) The about me section makes him sound either really, really negative or psychotic
7) He's listed himself as "Married" but open for "Dating"
8) He's worse at spelling than Dan Quayle
9) His pictures are all of him doing keg stands
10) All his "friends" are really, really trashy looking high school girls
11) His Hero is listed as 'Ol Dirty Bastard
12) Under Books.. says "I don't read much"
13) Any reference to women as "bitches"
14) Any picture of a guy wearing a doo-rag
15) Really creepy blogs
Anyhow, I'd like to open up the floor to discussion... Funny/weird stories about MySpace, who you got in touch with.. creepy people that tried to "Add As a Friend"...
Is this the new way of meeting people that live in the same area as you?
Nothing more than a free online dating site?
How come not that many married folks do MySpace?
Would you meet someone you met on the site?
Have you tried to find an old friend/flame?
Yeah, you can say that’s pretty monumental
Currently I have 137 friends comprised from these backgrounds... college, high school, friends of friends, bands, youth group, work, church, a few people I’ve never met, movies, and insert anything else here.
The upside is that you can pretty much find anyone on there. It’s pretty cool to get back in touch with people you never thought you’d reconnect with. See what their life is like now, and get that fix for nostalgia. I’ve even discovered a few old crushes, only to hit the reality that they’re now either engaged or married. (It beats wondering if they’re still ‘out there’ somewhere!)
Here’s what I don’t understand. At least once a day I get a random, at times sexually explicit message from a guy who lives in El Paso. The content ranges from "wat up?" to "Damn, you’re FINE." Charming, I know. Out of curiosity, I’ll check out their profile... only to be terrified. Why? I’ve come to question why guys will include the following on their MySpace page, which is supposed to be enticing...
1) Excessive profanity (ESPECIALLY if it's in his username or headline)
2) Instead of the "Online Now" thing... there's something like "Pimpin' it"
3) His background is a Playboy picture/Beyonce Knowles wearing gold lame/Pinup girl
4) Favorite activities are: partying it up! Getting with the ladies! Meeting hot women!
5) The about me section is unintelligible
6) The about me section makes him sound either really, really negative or psychotic
7) He's listed himself as "Married" but open for "Dating"
8) He's worse at spelling than Dan Quayle
9) His pictures are all of him doing keg stands
10) All his "friends" are really, really trashy looking high school girls
11) His Hero is listed as 'Ol Dirty Bastard
12) Under Books.. says "I don't read much"
13) Any reference to women as "bitches"
14) Any picture of a guy wearing a doo-rag
15) Really creepy blogs
Anyhow, I'd like to open up the floor to discussion... Funny/weird stories about MySpace, who you got in touch with.. creepy people that tried to "Add As a Friend"...
Is this the new way of meeting people that live in the same area as you?
Nothing more than a free online dating site?
How come not that many married folks do MySpace?
Would you meet someone you met on the site?
Have you tried to find an old friend/flame?
posted by Jennifer @ 8:28 AM
5 Comments:
At 5:30 AM, April 09, 2006,
Babba-Gi said…
I know this guy. He lives in West Asheville. I tried to find an old friend on-line, but the server was down at Rikers Island. They were in the middle of a lock-down.
At 6:56 AM, April 11, 2006,
Anonymous said…
This is why I used Facebook. That way, only my college friends can see how psychotic I am.
At 9:15 PM, April 11, 2006,
Anonymous said…
What if the guy's hero really is ODB? The man could spit fire back in the day.
At 1:40 PM, April 13, 2006,
Anonymous said…
I've found some people from high school that I've been wondering about for the past 10 years. That's been pretty cool. I found a couple of my campers (who're not kids anymore) from when I worked as a counselor at a summer camp. That's been pretty cool. I think I was propositioned by a hooker the other day. I checked out her page (again out of curiosity) and she was half naked all over the place. I sent her a message explaining to her that I thought her page was nasty, encouraged her to get checked for communicable diseases and to feel free to contact me again if she ever cleaned up her act. Was that judgemental or too harsh? Anyway, as a rule, I only add people that I know, so that keeps the creepy stuff to a minimum...except of course from my friends, but I already know THEY were creepy!
At 2:49 PM, April 13, 2006,
The Prufroquette said…
Ouch, anonymous...while I agree that crude photos are out of taste, it was perhaps a little harsh/judgmental to call her out on communicable diseases; who knows what happens in a person's background to cause her to act in ways that disregard the value of her own body and being as a creation of God?
On the other hand, you have every right NOT to be propositioned, as a person who strives to live a holy life. So it is most commendable to stand up for your integrity by declining any offers ("beware the adulteress, my son") that would tarnish you.
My thoughts on many of the girls and women who freely distribute their bodies the way people throw candy at parades is that they may have never been loved, cherished, protected, and treasured by their fathers. Every woman needs validation from a man, just as much as from her mother and female friends; after all, this is a dual-sex world that we live in. And without a healthy, nonsexual model of love, protection, and goodness from a father, a girl can seek male validation wherever she can find it...and it's usually most abundantly available in the beds of thoughtless, selfish, sex-obsessed men, so that by degrees she comes to believe that the ONLY thing about her that gives her value is her ability to have sex. And our society encourages this tragic degredation of human worth.
Remember, too, as you honor Christ with your sexual purity, that Christ himself, while never condoning sexual immorality, associated with the prostitutes of his day, and by his gentleness, holiness, and love redeemed them and their lifestyles -- even before his death (Mary Magdelene, traditionally a prostitute, abandoned her sexual sin after Christ drove out her demons and joined his followers for the rest of his life, and after his resurrection).
Not that we should be arrogant enough to assume that our company can ever "redeem" anyone; and in a world among people riddled with sin and the effects of sin, it's hard to know where the lines of justice and mercy really are; but gentle, firm words can go a long way to touch someone's heart, give a person a sense of the tenderness with which God views him or her, and even heal very old wounds, of which we many know nothing.
So yes, of course, turn down the offers you may receive, on MySpace or in other places, and keep yourself pure. But perhaps be careful of your wording, that you do not reinforce the scornful view that the world already has of her, and that she almost certainly, in her private soul, has of herself. It's possible to deny the behavior without demoralizing the person (even if the person apparently has no morality, he/she still has a soul).
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