On the subject of Myspace
It surprises me that MySpace is now a mandatory thing. If you want to be friends with someone these days, you have to have a MySpace account. If not, you miss out on gossip, you never get invited anywhere, and it takes years to see those pictures your friend took last weekend with their camera and promised to email to you right away. Frankly, it makes me sick that the world has come to this.
Ten years ago I was still in high school, and the Internet was something only the geeks appreciated. Understandable because most websites were nothing more than colored backgrounds with some crappy icons and animated text headlines. But I used to ponder how long it would take the general population to catch up with the geeks. I figured it would be a while, but before long everyone would do everything via the Internet. It doesnt take a genius to look around at the digital world we live in and see that is exactly where we are today.
What makes me sad however, is that instead of the average computer user being competent in the technology fundamentals that make up the Internet we know and love today, companies like MySpace and Yahoo have developed platforms that provide the Internet to everyone’s fingertips in single-serve fashion. It is entirely plausible to believe that there are scores of people who know nothing about the Internet and spend more than 4 hours a day using it.
As a result of this, Americans now have a never ending list of risks they take every time they log into their computer. From Identity theft to viruses, from SPAM to Interent stalkers, using the ‘net these days is somewhat like having unprotected sex with a stripper - sooner or later you’re gonna get caught up. Being that I am an IT Professional, I am troubled by how polluted the once glorious arena called the Word Wide Web has become.
So what is my point? Learn something. Figure out how to use email to communicate with people rather than relying on posting comments on your friend’s wall. Upload your pictures to a sharing service like Flickr. Get yourself a blog on WordPress.com. And for the love of christ, stop forwarding me chain emails.
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