MySpace

I have had a MySpace account for about 3 years now. Seeing MySpace evolve has been interesting because it seems that the more popular this Internet community becomes, the more potential one has for drawing themselves toward anonymous, and potentially dangerous forms of cyberspace traps such as Spam messages and predators. When I first began using MySpace, the amount of friends and age group of friends seemed to be geared more toward young adult. Now MySpace has increasingly become popular with the younger crowd, as well as adults. I believe that because of the popularity and diversity of people joining MySpace, people may set themselves up for allowing too much personal information about themselves be revealed, which can lead to a variety of consequences such as being life threatening, career destructing, or just plain embarrassing.

On MySpace, I read bulletins and comments posted by friends to friends. Many bulletins are surveys and some are Spam messages from which a persons’ profile has become “hacked” onto. While reading bulletins, sometimes it amazes me what some people will write about for everyone on their friends list to know! It is interesting to see some peoples MySpace pages compared to others. You can tell when somebody feels they need to be a little more careful about the information that is broadcasted on their page by setting his/her page to private, therefore only allowing “friends” to see. Others are more careful by not disclosing where he or she works, goes to school, or even the city they live in. I think that some people are just more open to what they share with others. For me, I do list my hometown, high school, college, and place of employment. No matter how much information is given to others, everyone should understand the consequences he or she may encounter if a confrontation occurs because someone was not careful enough regarding the personal content shared on MySpace.

I have off and on set my profile setting to private. I did this a few months ago and decided to revert my page back to public mainly due to the fact that I could set my homepage as a favorite, and go to my page to listen to my profile song and see if any of my top friends were online at the time. I know it seems like of strange, but I found this to be convenient. I do however, have my pictures set to private, therefore the anonymous MySpace viewers cannot see my photo albums. Another reason I have kept my page to public is because I have set my Spam setting to custom, and have made messaging, commenting, and friend adding settings at a more secure level. For example, only those from my friends list can send me messages and comments, and must go through the security process.

Yes, although having my profile set to public doesn’t stop anonymous viewers from viewing my profile, it stops potentially dangerous anonymous communicators from communicating with me. I set my privacy to disabling those under 18 to contact me and the high settings I have for the Spam filter have completely eliminated any random creepy messages I used to receive. I also never get Spam comments or messages anymore. I also do not share my last name on my page, nor give information such as phone numbers, my e-mail address, or personal address to anyone! And if for any reasons I felt that I was putting my life in danger with the information I do have on my page, I would make alterations. I also do not write anything to personal in comments, nor personal bulletins.

Although MySpace's logo, "A place for friends" suits many peoples purpose for communicating online, this network creates the potential for people to communicate with anonymous people who may have false identities and be out to harm. The best thing to do is play it safe and not communicate with those you don't know and certainly don't post anything you would not want a dangerous person to know, or maybe your boss to know! MySpace has dealt up many controversies including the most recent with the Oregon mayor who has been under heat when photos of her in lingerie where found on MySpace. When personal content is posted on the Internet, basically anyone can find a way to access that information. Personal information has the potential to be transfer to the eyes of anonymous views and one must take responsibility for the content regarding their lives that is spread on the World Wide Web.