Can 67 million people be wrong about something? I think so. But before you start raising your eyebrow, let me explain. Shortly after being peer pressured into joining the MySpace cult last July, which my friends swore was the most fun place to be, I began to realize that MySpace is evil. My life consisted solely of taking pictures of myself in front of mirrors, leaving at least one comment per day on all my ‘friends’ pages and searching far and wide for people who enjoy the taste of pretzels and ice cream like I do.
Was I desperate for a sense of belonging? No way. I’ve got friends, a happening social life, and a standout personality, and of course, I’m being modest. I simply wanted something to do in between classes and my favorite TV shows- other than pulling out my hair from boredom. My “friends” list increased rapidly from 11 people to more than 150. Who the heck were all these people asking me for revealing photos of myself and details of what I like to do when I’m home alone? People with no lives and sick imaginations, I assume.
However, my issues with this overrated and low maintenance website are not about safety, which is the main concern for many people. I think MySpace ruins friendships relationships, and perhaps lives in general. Not to say MySpace is single-handedly destroying the minds of our youth. Oh no, people, it is just the beginning.
First, I’d like to point out a comment made by a fellow Sundial staffer in an article published on March 16 titled ‘MySpace not as bad as many make it out to be.’
“MySpace does have a lot of good to it. I have stayed in touch with friends who do not live in California.”
Many people have told me that they rediscovered friends from high school through MySpace.
So, after all these years, I’m supposed to be overjoyed to be reunited with people I cared so little about to begin with that I lost touch with them? I think not. Obviously, we can live without these “friends” because we never bothered to contact one another after parting ways anyway. For those who don’t wish to spend money on long-distance phone calls but want to keep in touch with out- of-state friends, I guess MySpace works for them.
On another note, I was having a pleasant drive to school Monday morning when Ryan Seacrest graced me with his presence on the radio and broke up another couple using his “Ryan’s Roses” scheme. A female employee at the station calls an unsuspecting male to find out if he is cheating on his girlfriend, who waits impatiently on the line, by offering a free dozen roses that can be sent to anyone he chooses. To my amusement the flowers are always sent to someone other than the girlfriend.
This week’s episode revolved around a woman who suspected her fianc? of cheating after logging into his MySpace account and reading e-mails he was sending to another woman. The e-mails weren’t perverted or overly personal, just harmless chatting that we tend to do with fellow MySpacers. Needless to say, their relationship was over. But did he really cheat? Did he ever even meet this woman in real life?
I never met any of the people I was e-mailing on MySpace but some of the conversations would make it seem that we had been friends forever.
Even those of us who use MySpace to communicate with our “real friends,” who we should trust, may often find ourselves snooping on their pages, as if something should be wrong. All of a sudden, the “friends” on their lists begin to look like a crowd of people you never imagined your buddies associating with or even as having anything in common with.
Oh, and let us not forget how impersonal MySpace can be. Does anyone pick up a phone anymore to say “hi”? Why do we get invites to parties or weekend outings from our closest friends through MySpace? And why don’t they call you when they realize you haven’t logged onto MySpace in a week and haven’t seen that email? Is it because when we are on MySpace we lose all sense of who we actually care about and just start inviting everyone to go everywhere just to have something to do?
MySpace doesn’t even feel like a fun place to hang out anymore either. The increase in advertisements on the website since News Corp. purchased MySpace for $580 million is astounding. The pop-ups and ads asking you to “Click here for a prize” are relentless and trailers for new movies are bringing in the big bucks for News Corp. and annoying the heck out of subscribers like me.
We have become addicted to MySpace like people are addicted to drugs, folks. To that I say, dare to stay off drugs. Uh, I mean, MySpace.
Taline Helwajian can be contacted at thm70006@csun.edu
