MySpace.com Review

I have been a MySpace member for over two years now, and I sometimes love it.

 On the other hand, in those two years and "loose change" - so to speak - I have had days in which I hate the site and wonder why I signed up in the first place.

 Of course, MySpace, which was founded several years ago by a pair of young guys and for a time was an independent entity until it ended up becoming part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has been in the news lately.  Not only has it become, unfortunately, a source of worry for parents whose kids might be targeted by pedophiles, but it also was at the center of a horrible tragedy involving a 13-year-old girl who killed herself after a "MySpace guy" she liked started sending her nasty messages on her MySpace page.  The "guy" was not real, but the creation of the parents of the dead girl's former best friend.

As a member, I've had many pleasant experiences since I created my profile on MySpace.  I've kept a blog more or less regularly, made some new friends from all around the country, reconnected with a few friends from high school and college that I'd lost touch with, and have created a "jukebox" which showcases some of my favorite songs and other types of musical composition.  (To be fair, I've had help in some of this; the person who got me interested in MySpace assisted in adding some of the nicer features to my profile.)

Assets: 

Of the site's must-have features, my No. 1 feature is the blog.  Not that I'm narcissistic to excess, but I do admit to wanting to "show off" my writing online.  Sometimes I write what I call "real" entries in which I talk about what's going on in my life, but often I'll just "copy paste" reviews, poems, or even short stories I've written elsewhere.  Often I'll take the middle ground and do a combination of both; I'll talk about the subject of Writing and include links to my reviews. (My best friend calls that "link pimping." I call it self-marketing.)

Another nice thing is that MySpace allows members to search for lost friends and classmates from high school or college.  Most schools are listed, particularly in big cities, and chances are that if you do a search or two, you'll run into people you haven't seen in years.   And sometimes, a search just by location will result in you finding someone, or someone finding you; this happened when Ingrid, my friend from my Semester in Spain stint back in '88, found me and added me to her Friends' list, 

Other stuff that you can do for fun on MySpace? You can add videos from their Videos section or upload (non-porn, of course) them from YouTube using HTML code....you can join Groups that reflect your interest...you can check out music by either established or new-and-coming artists...you can go to chat rooms and meet others that way...you can exchange instant messages with the MySpace IM widget....as they say in late night commercials: "All this and more!"

Liabilities: Almost everyone I know who has a MySpace page seems to have the same issues, mainly spammers and weirdos with fake profiles.  The people who run the site work really hard to prevent big-time spammers, but those jerks always find some way to infiltrate our in-boxes and put ads for porn sites, dating sites, false gift cards, and whatever else we don't want to get when we check our messages.  It's very annoying, especially when we get notices that there are "New" messages and all that's left is big red X's and a "This Profile Has Been Deleted" caption.

 Another thing I hate is this: If a friend or significant other leaves cute, clever, funny or sexy messages on your page and you think they will be there forever, forget it.  Not only can you delete the comments if you so please, but they can remove them as well, mainly by deleting you from their Friends' list. I don't think they can remove each message manually; I just looked over on a friend's page where I posted a comment and there's no "Delete Comment" option. 

Of course, if a friendship/romance has ended by mutual accord, sometimes it's better not to have any reminders of it, but sometimes MySpace will have a cyber-hiccup and delete people at random.  This has happened to me...very recently, in fact....and I saw that a year's worth of comments - jokes, birthday/holiday wishes, and even sympathy messages - were gone.  It really "bites," and if it happens to you, you have to cool down from the initial "why did he/she drop me" reaction and ask the friend in question if he/she actually deleted you.  If you and your friend have had no fights or rifts, chances are that it was a MySpace bug.

And yes, for parents with kids who have a MySpace profile: Eternal vigilance is the price of your kids' online well-being. I don't deny that for most people, even teens, MySpace can be fun, but there are just too many weirdos and pervs out there.  So, exercise caution and try to be aware of who your children are exchanging messages or IMs with.  It's better to put up with exasperated protests of  "Ohhh, Mom/Dad!!!" from your young ones than to have to deal with tragedies and heartbreaks.

Final Thoughts: MySpace can be a fun, even useful social networking site. I've had my profile up since the fall of 2005 and I don't see myself deleting it or leaving it to "rot" of neglect.  However, it does, like the Force, have its dark side, so use it, but be careful.