MySpace - where you can hang yourself for your own crime

[katiefoolery]

I was cataloguing a recent issue of Time magazine, when I came across the following article.

The Thin Blue Line at MySpace

A high school freshman in Massachusetts threatened classmates online.  A 14-year-old in Georgia said he would blow up the White House.  Two 17-year-olds went on a pyromaniacal spree in Washington, setting fire to stores, a bowling alley and a bus.  Police have arrested all four in the past month - with the help of the teens themselves, who confessed the crimes openly on their pages at MySpace.com      Actually, "bragged" might be more apt.  The confessions are all about showing off, says Trench, the scribe at Mycrimespace.com, which tracks the growing number of crime stories with MySpace twists.  (He goes by a pseudonym because he has received death threats for his efforts).  "These teens just want to see how many MySpace friends they can get - the wrong friends."      The line between public and private is blurry to many youths, who see MySpace as a safe haven.  Justine Cassell, a psychologist at North-western University near Chicago, says, "Kids have an egocentrism.  They believe they can see others and others can't see them.  Trench isn't sure the logic is that complex.  "I hate to insult kids," he says, "but they just don't think."

-- by Clayton Neuman (Time, 5th June 2006, p.9)

Many of you have probably already guessed that I'm not the world's greatest fan of MySpace.  Previously, I thought it was simply populated by people to whom "web design standards" is an incoherent jumble of letters, people who have whole-heartedly embraced the abhorrent concept of embedding music on their pages and spending a great deal of time working out how to use sticky caps, when they could have written things in a coherent and legible manner in half the time.

Now it looks like it's also the abode of the criminally inept and the just plain stupid.

(My apologies to anyone on my friends list who has a MySpace.  I just don't get it and nothing will ever convince me to venture in there ever again.  I've been traumatised by too many profile pages with dark green text on a black background and been forced to listen to someone's dubious taste in music without asking my permission first.)

Comments?  Opinions?  Are you, too, a MySpace devotee with the intetion of committing a crime-spree and telling everyone about it?  Or are you completely indifferent to the whole thing?

Comments

[charliemc.livejournal.com]

Exactly my personal sentiment.

I've seen way too many negatives just here locally (in Portland) associated with MySpace to ever be 'a fan' of the site.

I'd never suggest that everyone who uses it is wrong to do so, but I don't think it's the same sort of environment as we experience here at LiveJournal (by way of comparison).

There do seem to be any number of ways for people to waste time on line (as opposed to wisely spending it, I suppose). I favor journals because I feel they're a wonderful way to keep a life record (the way we used to in paper diaries). And you already know I feel any form of writing can be yet another way to improve our writing skills!

I know a lot of young people who do think and are very mature, so I'd disagree with what Mr. Neuman's generalization about 'kids.' But it does seem that overall MySpace attracts youth who have a different mindset than I did when I was young. (And certainly a different mindset than I do now... smile...)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

You're right - people shouldn't feel that they shouldn't use MySpace. I'm fine with people having accounts and sites there. I'm just never going in there ever again! :D

A friend on my list recently announced she'd set up a MySpace account and I asked her what she was doing with it, just out of interest, since she'd mentioned she'd done it purely to communicate with her friends who didn't write journals. What was the point? I wanted to know. She said people basically left messages on each other's profiles. It doesn't sound like fun to me! I love reading about my friends' lives and activities on LJ. I'd much rather leave a comment on a journal entry than a badly-designed profile page.

It was a rather scathing generalisation about kids, wasn't it? I certainly know, from working in two secondary colleges, that they're not all thoughtless. Yes, some certainly are stupid, selfish and egocentric, but there are others who are thoughtful, intelligent and self-aware. I'm inclined to think if MySpace will take the former, then I'm happy to have the latter here on LJ. :)

[notacrnflkgirl.livejournal.com]

I've heard tons in the news lately about the pedophilia/murders/sex crimes/etc. occuring as a result of MySpace interactions. Mostly, victims and perps alike have profiles with complete contact info, sexual or otherwise inappropriate pictures, blah blah blah for the whole world to see. I understand that it's never the victim's fault that s/he was hurt, but with such an open invitation to sick minds everywhere...neither party is right.

That's why I don't invite trouble or pose for suggestive photos (although I have listed my full name, as I do here on LiveJournal). And I only "approve" friends to be on my friends list if I know them. No strangers, thanks.

As for the whole HTML-illiterate aspect? It drives me up the wall! I leave my profile in the default layout I was given when I joined. It's never hard to read, and it's very easy on the eyes AND bandwidth. :)

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

The default layouts are fine! Alas, hardly anyone seems to stick to them. I think individuality is great, but ironically, many people on MySpace seem to want their layout to look like everyone else's "individual" layouts... and they're not great role models most of the time.

It is sad that you can't really feel safe anywhere on the internet. It'd be great if MySpace was a place where kids really could simply meet people and create hideous layouts.

[notacrnflkgirl.livejournal.com]

It is sad that you can't really feel safe anywhere on the internet. It'd be great if MySpace was a place where kids really could simply meet people and create hideous layouts.

Haha! I concur. :)

[notacrnflkgirl.livejournal.com]

I almost forgot! How does one go about putting long quotes in a bordered box like you have? (I'm aware of the blockquote tag, and I use it, but I didn't know it was possible to have a border, too.)

Many thanks!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I did it in a bordered table. I'll post the code for you, so you can see what it looks like. You could probably get the same effect with a centred div, but I wanted different alignments for the title and the article details, so a table was best for my purposes.

<table align="center" style="width: 400px; border: 1px solid #000000;"><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b>TITLE</b></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-size: 8pt;">[text]</td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: right; font-size: 8pt;"><b></b><br />
(article </td></tr></table>

[notacrnflkgirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[frohike.livejournal.com]

How did you make the html source display? I tried six different ways and couldn't get it to work.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I used the code for the brackets, rather than the brackets themselves, good Nomes.

< = & lt ;
> = & gt ;
(Without the spaces, of course).

[wildebeth.livejournal.com]

I love MySpace. There are people who use and abuse LJ, Yahoo, Gmail, Urbis, and on and on ad nauseum. For instance, remember the girl who confessed to killing her mother on LJ? How about the many who have manipulated others into giving them money for either "charity" or their "awful disease" of the month? Maybe about the ones who attack their friends, family, fellower LJ-ers with cruel and/or criminal intent either publicly or more quietly in f-locked posts?

I use MySpace to get back in touch with people I used to know, to stay in touch with people I know now, and to find people. It's a great tool for the communications impaired. For instance, my current MySpace buddies include: my future father-in-law, my future sister-in-law, several friends from high school that I hadn't seen or talked to since shortly after graduation seven eight! years ago, my fiance, several friends I know from school now, a few close friends from LJ, and one person I knew from childhood! It's awesome.

Anyway. That's my little rant. XD

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you commented and thank-you for doing so! I was hoping some people would tell me what they liked about MySpace. I like the fact that you're using it to keep in contact with your family. That's the best thing about the internet - the fact that you can close to people who are far away and can share things with them as soon as they happen.

It's great to know people are using MySpace responsibly. And you're right that LJ isn't immune from great scandals. I was thinking to myself, as I was copying the article text, that I'm sure people do similar things on LJ.

I guess I'm just an LJ addict, when it gets right down to it.

[wildebeth.livejournal.com]

Yup. I hear you.

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

Someone confessed to killing her mother on LJ?!

[wildebeth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's in wikipedia somewhere....

Let me see if I can find it, and I'll get back to you.

Here ya go.

[wildebeth.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachelle_Waterman

Re: Here ya go.

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[purpletigress.livejournal.com]

I don't use MySpace, but I was browsing around in there yesterday as my sister-in-law has one. I've found one thing that I like, and that's how easy it is to find people. I could search people by school and graduation year, then I could look in the clearly marked photo section to see who they were (if their user picture wasn't one of them). That's kind of nice. The searches seem to be clearer. I'd hoped I could use livejournal for that sort of thing when they brought in the schools feature, but everyone here is usernames and artistic photos (not necessarily of the person). Profiles here often don't give away any clues, so I've found it less than helpful.

However, my searching just made me wish LJ had those features, rather than making me want to be on MySpace.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know you could do searches like that! It would be nice if you could do something similar on LJ. So far, I'm the only person on here from my secondary school...

[snarkymonkey.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* Indifferent. My best friend conned me into getting one but I never use it and instead, drug her to livejournal. XD I'd say that LJ wins yet again.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! That's the way to go - get the good people onto LJ!

[elfie-chan.livejournal.com]

I *heart* LJ. I think that MySpace is a bit silly. But then, that's just me. I have a preference. Plus, I think that bragging on any site about your crimes is what should be classified as "criminally stupid." It's like the guy who was accused of robbing vending machines and tried to pay for his bail in change. I think that people like that should get fined extra. "I'm sorry; not only did you set fire to a bazillion buildings and cost a gazillion dollars in damages, but you also bragged about it on MySpace. That's going to add about thirty days to your jail time and one hundred dollars to your fine for the additional charge of being Criminally Stupid, which I am convicting you of right now."

I don't want people to be able to find me. I don't want to post my real name and address and phone number for a bunch of strangers to see.

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

It would be good to be able to convict people of being criminally stupid...

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Exactly! The idea of leaving all your details for the whole world to find is just silly. But some people won't be told. Perhaps MySpace is a form of genetic selection? It weeds out those with defective genes and makes the human race stronger as a species.

Or perhaps not...

[rigel-7.livejournal.com]

I sometimes poke about in my brothers myspace, but I get put off by the horrible layouts of his friends and the music that they tend to embed in the pages.

But he does use it to keep in contact with heaps of people, from what i can tell they leave short messages for each other and post photos of events to share.

Even though there is a blog feature, none of them seem to use it. I prefer LJ so much over myspace. It's just far more personal IMHO, there's more room to move, the page isn't cluttered with useless crap that takes years to download and I love reading my flist!

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I prefer LJ, too, I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear. It's so much more fun to read a friends' list!

Also, the ratio of good to bad layouts is tipped heavily in favour of good here.

[sirgallivant.livejournal.com]

I visited MySpace a little while ago for some irrelevant reason, and didn't see what the fuss was about. It just doesn't seem to be as dynamic as LJ. *Insert Percy Bullant face from MSN here*

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

It seems to be, for the most part, the blog you have when you're not having a blog. I love the way there's always something to read about on my friends' page. I think MySpace would bore me. :)

[lizzyrose89.livejournal.com]

Well, I do have a MySpace account, but I've never used it. Most of my friends have one, but I much prefer LJ. It is quite useful for finding out about local bands, though.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

This is what I'm hearing a lot - that MySpace is predominantly about music. I suppose this would explain why most people insist on embedding music on their pages...

LJ's so much more fun!

[lizzyrose89.livejournal.com]

I agree. LJ rules! :-)

[frohike.livejournal.com]

Um, it hasn't been the 5th of June yet.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Well then, I'd better not tell you about all the July issues of magazines we've already received... Magazines like the pretend they exist in the future, I think.

[poisonheadache.livejournal.com]

I have a Myspace account that I use only to add bands to. It seems there are announcements through the bands pages that I wouldn't know about otherwise. It's a secret account though and has no pictures. I also won't add anyone to it because I just don't like Myspace. It's a very personal thing but my ex-boyfriend used it to meet women while we were together. It just makes me feel weird about the place. Generally I don't like it because people seem to use it as a way to chat people up rather than learn about them. There's also a huge emphasis on adding people because of their looks/image and variety of pictures that always seem to be taken in front of a mirror! I think I went off on a rant there - sorry!

I love LJ though :D

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I can quite understand your feeling weird about MySpace after that whole thing with your ex. MySpace does seem to scream "dodgy", doesn't it?

The thing I like about LJ is that you tend to make friends based on shared interests and how you write. I'd much rather be judged by that than by how I look, or how well I take a picture of myself in front of a mirror.

[cat-eyes-el.livejournal.com]

I've never been there.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

Don't go! It's not worth it.

[meretia]

I don't get MySpace. I went over there once or twice, and it just confused me. I was expecting more content than just the profiles, but...that's it. Especially coming from a LiveJournal background, I was half-convinced that there was more content that I was somehow missing, but that doesn't seem to be the case in most instances. I know a lot of people who really like it as a tool to promote their musical or artistic projects, but for the everyday user, I just don't understand the point of going to the effort to put so little content there. I also don't really understand why the media makes such a big, honking deal over MySpace. It seems like there's an article about it on the TV news or in the paper at least once a week, to the point of "Look over there! Your kids (whether or not you have any) are talking to each other on the com-pyoo-ter! Gosh, we're so 'hip' and 'with it' to tell you about this!" I mean geez, if that's news, then why not something like an Internet dating site, which seem to work on the same general principles?

I stay away from it, but between the awful web design and chat speak, I don't really feel like I'm missing much.

Of course, with the cases that article in specific, you also have to remember that it's dealing with American teenagers, a large percentage of whom are utter morons.

[katiefoolery.livejournal.com]

I experienced the same thing with thinking there was something beyond the profile page! It probably explains why people seem to spend so much time on making sure their profile page is as "pretty" as possible, seeing as it's the only place where they can express their personality.

The media does love trying to be "cool" about the internet, doesn't it? A little while ago, there was an article in Dolly about how kids are using places such as - *gasp!* - LiveJournal to create "hate blogs" where they pick on people they don't like and make their lives a misery. They had links to LJ and a couple of other sites as well, so I'm not sure if they were trying to discourage the concept or actively advertise it.

[naelany.livejournal.com]

I would have to agree with you to an extent. I know a few people on MySpace who are there because they don't know how to do the whole HTML and this is an easy way to get webspace.
However, it is being abused very badly, but then the potential for said abuse is there on the web no matter where.