My Space Ethnography

Introduction

Since it’s start in 2003, MySpace has exponentially gained popularity. There are many aspects of MySpace that appeal to all sorts of different people. It seems to have something for everyone. On the site, you can create a custom profile, upload pictures for your friends to see, send emails and IM’s, write blogs, leave comments for your friends, and lots of other nifty little time munching activities. MySpace is an addiction for many of its users, which leaves us to wonder; what’s the big deal?

Adults and MySpace

People used to rely on person-to-person interactions for their social needs. Now, with the boom of the Internet, people can meet new “friends” without ever leaving the house. According to my interviews of 15 MySpace users, the most common reason they use MySpace is to keep in touch with friends, whether it be high school friends, college friends, or friends from work. Many of them actually prefer using MySpace to talking on the phone. Convenient? Sure. But does it satisfy our needs for social interaction?

Relationships that are created online are notoriously shallow. They just don’t have the same depth as a relationship you form with someone in-person. What about relationships with people you knew once, but don’t see much anymore? It’s pretty much the same scenario. Shallow friendships are formed, without any real bond taking place.
 
I see a big problem with people who are frequent MySpace users. They are slowly weaning themselves from real social interaction, and becoming solely dependent on MySpace to meet their social needs. My friend Ashley told me, “Honestly, if MySpace didn’t exist, I probably wouldn’t have contact with half the people that I do. I’m not someone who likes to talk on the phone and no one really seems to write letters anymore, so it’s an important social tool.”
 
Out of the 15 people I interviewed, 12 of them told me that they logged on to MySpace at least once a day. The others stated it was several times a week. What’s pulling them back so often? According to my friend Samantha, “You just never know, you might have a message waiting on you!”

Well, these are all reasons that the older crowd enjoys MySpace. What about the young people who are signing up in herds? There are a lot of aspects of MySpace that appeal to them as well.

Youth and MySpace

I think that many young people are drawn to MySpace because it’s become such a key ingredient in the youth culture. If you don’t have a MySpace, you’re nobody. How you represent yourself is very important when you hit the middle school years. Kids start becoming more self-conscious and aware of how they appear to others. Just like kids choose their clothes carefully to represent them, they also create a MySpace to represent them. The difference is that on MySpace, they have more freedom than they do at school. They have the freedom of expression on their side. Look out world.

As young people get older, they want more and more freedom. That’s a problem in the harsh world of today. With all the violence, drugs, and other bad influences out there, parents want a safe place for their kids to hang out with their friends. Most parents would rather their kids stay in on the computer where they’re safe as opposed to going to a teen hangout and having to worry about if they are making the right decisions. If the kids online, then they’re not out getting into trouble. It gives parents a little peace of mind and some much-desired control.
MySpace Rules

Within the MySpace community, there are a lot of unspoken rules that outsiders are unaware of. People who participate in the MySpace community are fully aware of them, and some of them have had to learn the hard way. Here’s an Insider’s list of the things an Outsider needs to know before getting involved in the MySpace community.

1. Think before you post a bulletin. Bulletins can be read by all of your friends. Once you send it, it’s up there, for everyone to see. Proofread it. Oh, and don’t post chain letters. They’re just annoying.
2. Don’t fish for comments. Sometimes people will actually leave comments that say “leave me a comment!”. It doesn’t get much more pathetic than that.
3. Don’t add a lot of people to your friends list just because you want a large number of friends. Everyone makes fun of the MySpace “friend whores”.
4. Don’t ask to be in someone’s top 8 friends list. It’s lame. If they want you there, they’ll put you there.
5. Don’t send messages as comments. Save the, “Hey what are you doing tomorrow night?” for a private message to that person. Don’t just comment for comment’s sake.
6. Don’t post pictures that say things like “I’m so fat.” That’s fishing for compliments.
7. Never post more than 3 bulletins at a time. People will think you’re too into yourself, and will stop reading them. You don’t want to be the boy who cried bulletin.
8. Don’t put a bunch of animated pictures on your MySpace page. It just takes forever to load. When people come to your page, they want to read about you, not be hypnotized by all the glittering “princess” and “diva” gifs.
9. Don’t post 30 pictures you took at the same time. One or two is enough.
10. Avoid drama-riddled blogs. They just make people think you’re a psycho. There’s a private blog feature. Save your crazy talk for that.
11. Your display picture should be a picture of your face. Don’t take a picture of your left eye and make that your display picture. That just makes everyone else think that the rest of your face is ugly.
12. Update your page every month or two. It sounds odd if you have a ten-month-old child but your “about me” section still says you’re pregnant.

In conclusion, MySpace is a huge cultural phenomenon that is already hugely popular, and is destined to only keep growing. Children and adults alike are flocking to it at an alarming rate to get a quick fix for their social needs, but is it enough? We’re already starting to see less community involvement because of computers. Over time, it’s only sure to get worse.

Even though many see MySpace as a harmless social outlet for keeping in touch with old friends, far too many people are relying on it to be their only social interaction. This is a very dangerous thing, as humans rely on each other to meet their emotional needs. Those needs have to be met somehow. Chatting with people over the Internet just isn’t getting the job done.

MySpace is fun, and sure, it’s convenient too. But so is a happy meal. It might be a quick fix for your hunger, but it doesn’t meet your long-term nutritional needs, just like MySpace won’t be able to meet all of your social needs.

It’s friendship… in a neat little to-go box.

This chapter also got me thinking about the “magnetic” effect of the computer on children. Children can spend hours on the computer and not even realize it. When children learn social skills online, they are not really learning social skills at all. They are more comfortable online, but in actual social situations with real people, they don’t know how to act. They don’t learn from watching people’s facial expressions and body language. They don’t learn how to use manners in public. They don’t learn life skills because they aren’t getting the real world experience that they need.

It makes me wonder if this may contribute to the growing number of discipline problems due to disrespect and other various unacceptable behaviors. If the children don’t go out, then opportunities to learn social nuances don’t occur. I think that computers, just like TVs with small children, should be limited. Not just for kids either. For adults too.

I was talking to another teacher at school whose husband and sons like to play World of Warcraft. She says that it is rare at her house to see the computer unoccupied. She was saying she didn’t understand how a grown man could just be sucked into that world like he was, and that he should be grown out of that! Well, I proceeded to tell her my theory. I think there are some people who are prone to addiction. Some are alcoholics. Some are drug addicts. Some smoke cigarettes. I think that Internet activities can be just as addictive. Only, they’re not as directly related to our health, so people don’t take them as seriously. I think that there may be a correlation with OCD and computer use. That would be an interesting study, wouldn’t it?

Imagine a scenario where a university professor is observing two student teachers. Student Teacher A presents a lively 10 minute lecture on the rock cycle, complete with drawings on the board, rock samples, etc. Student B presents the lesson with a powerpoint that has lots of clipart and pictures and sounds and all sorts of razzle dazzle. Which one do you think the professor will like better?

The Power Point Lesson, of course. Not because of quality, but because it was use of technology. Oh they just pee their pants when they see technology being used. Big deal. If it’s a meaningless enhancement, then why use it? If you are going to go through the trouble of making something like that, the students should, as a result, learn more from it. In which classroom do you think the students learned more?

Anyway, I liked Stoll’s tangent about how teachers should have a photocopier in their own room instead of a computer. That would be great! No more wrestling with the piece of trash copiers in the teacher’s lounge. It’s one of the moodiest machines I’ve ever seen – no joke. I support this movement. Where do I sign?

Another thing Stoll said that I loved was about how telephones would be an interruption in classrooms. At our school, we have a phone in every classroom. I wish I didn’t have one at all. That stupid thing drives me crazy. It rings 1-4 times EVERY CLASS. Oh and the intercom. Don’t even get me started on that. Seriously – how long is a teenager’s attention span? Five seconds? Six? How can we teach them and expect them to focus if we TEACHERS can’t even maintain a steady thought from all the interruptions? It’s pointless. Some days, I just kind of give up on the lecture part of the lesson.

Stoll said, “We should give teachers the respect of at least not interrupting them while they’re practicing their profession.”

Excuse me while I STAND UP AND CLAP!