Brian and Libby's Blog

Traitor

I have a confession to make. I am ashamed to admit that on Friday I created a myspace account. Sure, I claimed that the only reason was to "enhance" my blog (whatever that means). But alas, I soon found myself wasting time adding friends, uploading pictures and posting comments. As the minutes turned to hours, I realized I had a problem. I feel as though I have adulterated you, my faithful readers (hi mom). For this I apologize.

Ok all kidding aside, myspace is perhaps the most addicting thing I have ever encountered. And the funny thing is, everyone is open about how addicted they are, and it is uniquely acceptable, even praised, within the cyberwalls of myspace. Since I'm a communications geek, I've been thinking a lot about what the draw is; what in the world is it that draws us into the poorly designed (I don't know much about html but I do know that myspace isn't its best work), largely useless network that is myspace. In no particular order and with little forethought, here is what I've come up with:

1. Myspace is a social grandstand. You can lay it all out there: who you're friends with, who you comment with the most, who you have pictures of, etc. You can even show everyone who is in your elite by posting your "top friends." I know its been a while since I've been in high school but this is obviously much less effort than, say, eating at a table together or getting together at someone's locker. There's no work involved if you want to bring someone in or cast them out. You just rank them and they can log in and check and see where they stand.
2. Myspace caters to curiosity. Curiousity is probably the most watered down way to say this...it definitely borders invasion of privacy but hey, we're all putting it out there so why not look? You can find out what someone likes, what they watch and listen to, who they're friends with, and even see what they did on their last vacation. All this without committing to an actual interpersonal interaction, you know, like conversation. Which brings me to my next point.
3. Myspace is convenient. It's no shocker that we live in a generation that texts instead of calling and e-mails instead of walking over to a colleague's office. Myspace is taking this to the next level. Communication is ultimately convenient and surprisingly non-committal.
4. Myspace is controllable. No social blunders here. You are completely in control of how you appear to others. Sure, out in the real world you have to present yourself consciously and be sure that such presentation is consistent with your "image" (whatever that is) but within myspace, you can edit your picture, change your interests, alter your background, your song, your mood... And if you want you can spend hours tweaking to get it just right.

So anyways, I won't venture any crazy interpersonal communication theories about what all of this means. Suffice it to say that I am a dork and I think about all of this. Oh, and I'm pretty sure it definitely means something.

posted by Libby @ 8:18 PM