myspace...everyone's space

it's official. i have been suckered into creating a myspace profile (the link to which can be found on the right side of this page). clearly, "everyone" is doing it, and i guess i'm susceptible to peer pressure like that...or maybe it's just that if i got the message to "sign up for free" one more time when trying to check out so-and-so's pictures or blogs i was going to punch in my monitor.

of course just signing up isn't enough. then people start adding you as friends (which is fine) but the desire quickly escalates to hunt down as many friends as possible, because of course the only real accurate measurement of self-worth is in how many friends on myspace you have. after that, everyone demands you have a photo, because no one wants the blank stick figure on their friend list. so up a photo goes, and soon enough, you start adding your schools and companies because there's that underlying guilty-curiosity of wondering who from your past might randomly seek you out of the woodwork. so there you have it, but don't expect to see a lot of "action" over there. this is more my thing.

the thing about myspace i think we really overlook is that everyone does have it...or a lot of people anyway. it's a superior program to friendster and facebook, mainly because it's so much easier to seek out your friends with a simple search feature. i encourage you all to be cognizant of this.

looking through various people's profiles, i've seen some crazy shit. some funny, some just plain bizarre. there are plenty of stories of parents uncovering their childrens' illicit activities by searching them out on myspace. there have been cases of teachers being fired, or even arrested, for the material they publish on blogs and profile programs. it seems that some people are simply choosing to ignore the fact that the internet is a public domain, and what that really means.

if you think this curiosity doesn't extend to your bosses, coworkers and teachers present and future, you are mistaken. imagine going into a serious interview for an international conglomerate, and while you may be meeting your potential employer for the first time, there's a good chance he or she may have already seen pictures of you tongue-out, beer in hand, or making out with your friends, and may know all about your opinion of national politics, or how your best friend stabbed you in the back two weeks ago, and where your latest piercing is.

while those examples are fictional, i know this to be true because i have "myspaced" potential intern and pa candidates that have come across my desk. what is to stop anyone else from doing the same? well, not much.

just keep in mind before you start sending out that next round of resumes, all someone needs is your name, and suddenly "your" space is "their" space.