MY, MY, MYSPACE
Amen on the MySpace article (Cover Story, "MySpace MyAss," by Alex Pickett, Aug. 2-9)! It is a little scary and does seem to be taking over the world. My 13-year-old students seem to use it to trash-talk and start fights. My 49-year-old friend uses it to bash her daughter's ex-boyfriend. People you don't want to contact can find you. Do these things have to be shared with the world? I'm afraid, too!
Tracy
Via website
Just thought I'd throw my two pennies into the shallow pool of your consciousness. Day 1. Less than two hours and you've come close to statutory rape? Stay away from my community, pervert. You mention pedophiles far too many times, and if you really are upset about sharing space with them, your only option is to quit breathing. I haven't run into a single pedophile, but then again I don't look for them. Day 2. Just don't spend time on pages of people you don't like! Please? People with values other than yours have freedom of speech rights, too. Day 3. Relationships fall apart based on conversations about lettuce, my friend. I think it just means the relationship was weaker than lettuce. Ditto for MySpace. Day 4. Here are some ways you could get around the whole corporate spying thing: Don't work for spies, don't fill out your full name in MySpace, don't put incriminating evidence on MySpace. Day 5. You find fault in MySpace for spam? Spam?! I've gotten probably a total of 20 spam invites on MySpace in 6 months, and 20 a day in my email. Stick that in your crack pipe and smoke it. Day 6. OK, the musicians were right to pull their content from MySpace, but if you ever read the complete terms of service you would have realized that it stated that while content was uploaded they had the right to reproduce it however they saw fit. It's common for corporations to cover their asses. Praise be to Billy Bragg for taking after Mr. Murdoch and covering his ass. Day 7. WHY ARE YOU PROVIDING FREE PUBLICITY FOR MYSPACE?! I HATE YOU! I agree that MySpace has its problems, is a totem to corporate babylon, and is full of crap content that I don't want to fill my brain with. But why use the same tactics of misinformation and fear to sell your stupid little article so you can make some cash? Doesn't that make you as evil as Rupert Murdoch, but with tiny pockets?
Nathan Curry
Via website
I'm not sure if the point to your tirade is that we should be wary of big business knowing more of our personal information and sharing it with big government, but you forget one key ingredient with MySpace: Nobody is forcing you to do it. I created a MySpace profile in order to promote my work as an independent musician and guess what — I've gotten a LOT more feedback there than from a certain local rag (W——y P——t) that won't even confirm they received my freaking CD and press kit after numerous messages.
A. Mangus
Via website
Privacy is Good. MySpace is Bad. Hilarious, though. Why? I am a hiring manager for a local company and every time I am about to hire a new girl for the office I look her up on MySpace. I always tend to find pictures. Ah, the pictures do tell a thousand words. The drunk in Ybor, the sex kitten in her thong and bra, and then of course the lovely blog about how they had "sex" with a girl but aren't "gay." I love the surveys, too, especially the ones that ask if you have done any drugs or stolen anything in the past 30 days. (No jobby for you!) Some things should be left private, but those starving for attention will post what color their shit was last night. Pointless, meaningless, too much information. The only "beneficial" thing that I believe MySpace does is help promote bands.
Carlos
Via website
The article caught my eye, and being a very open-minded right-winger, I decided to pick up a copy of the liberal fire-breathing collection of articles you guys call the Weekly Planet. I read a few of the articles from time to time and as biased as they usually are, this one takes the cake. WTF does Rupert Murdoch owning Fox and Fox owning MySpace have to do with anything? Look around, there are more of your kind on there than us right-wingers, so don't even bring politics into anything to do with you being resistant to change and not wanting to join or whatever your anti-growth and technology problem is. The world's changing and either you're for it or you're Amish. Get a life.
Kyle
Via MySpace message
I read your article, and I agree totally. I would label myself a MySpace junkie, and I think (I have given the "need" for MySpace much thought) that we posses a certain amount of natural loneliness and a thing like MySpace temporarily takes the feeling of loneliness away. I just found it interesting that there actually is someone too cool for MySpace. You inspire me, no sarcasm intended at all.
Kelina
Via MySpace message
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2006.