MySpace Matters
Current mood: 
Category: MySpace
I have had conversations with people, one recently in particular that made me want to write this. Now what I am going to say also applies to Facebook, Xanga, etc. Basically, whichever site(s) you use for yourself. Feel free any time I say "MySpace" in this entry to refer to your site of choice. MySpace Matters. Why? Well, by the very fact that you are reading this, indicates that at least on some level, you utilize MySpace. The very fact that one uses these sites makes them incredibly important.
What is important about these sites is not so much that they exist themselves (though I have written and still believe that they add great communcative value to society, but that is a different issue), but rather that when someone uses the site, what it shows becomes valuable, and important.
The way I see it is this, MySpace is your face to the world. Some people hide behind private settings making sure that only those they trust see their face, while others leave everything right out there in the open for all the world to see. Some people put very little on their site, while others write blogs ranging from their daily activities to their philosophies on life. How and what one presents on MySpace is very much a part of who they are and how they want the world to percieve them.
Take another instance of import. One of my friends who has been in a long term relationship, had his "status" as single. I not so gently told him that he was a horrible boyfriend for doing so. My reasoning? That is one of his public faces. It would be very much like him meeting someone and saying that he was single. In my own experience, I remember very clearly when I decided that I wanted one person and any other interests were no longer a factor. To me, one of my ways of making that decision was deciding when it was that I would "announce" if you will that I was no longer single. *Note here that this was in the past, and no longer true.
Friends lists are another hot issue on MySpace. Sometimes there seems to be battles over who is on who's top and who has the most friends. For me, it is something I think about. I look at my life as it is now, and base my top friends over who is most prevalent in my life at that time. For me, I also only include people or organizations that I actually know on my list at all. I know some people are a lot more open than that, while others hate the "Top Friends" completely. There is no right or wrong, but it does say a lot about who you are. Some people think that all their friends are always equal. To me, that will never be the case. Those who are prevalent in my life will hold a significance that others don't. I will feel, and acknowledge stronger connections with some friends than others. That doesn't mean that one is "better" or even that another is no longer a part of my life, just that they aren't as involved at the moment.
I could continue listing examples all morning, but suffice to say, that no matter how much or how little one utilizes these sites, once you are there, it is a part of your image. The effort you put into it, and what you do with it one way or the other says a lot about who you are. I think that people are able to easiliy dismiss something on here because it's "online," when in truth chances are more people are going to see this side of you than any other. Important? I say so.
