Slashdot Mirror
The MySpace Generation
theodp writes "They live online. They buy online. They play online. Their power is growing. BusinessWeek reports on The MySpace Generation, aka Generation @, for whom being online is a way of life. Preeminent among the virtual hangouts is MySpace.com, who boasts 40 million members and claimed the No. 15 spot on the entire U.S. Internet. And in When murder hits the blogosphere, MSNBC reports on MySpace's sometimes surreal role in popular news stories."
I've been trying to write an article about MySpace for about 6 months, with the community changing faster than I can assimilate those changes into the article. MySpace is the ultimate free market in socializing, and it (or a system like it) has potential to being a huge part of every day life.
All my teen employees in my retail stores are on MySpace. Most of my adult employees are, as well. At first, the dame and I thought it was just a hook up scene (it is, though). We were laughing at how we knew some parents of kids on there who thought their kids were 100% puritan, and the messages led us to believe the opposite. The average poster also leads me to reinforce my belief that the laws against non-violent voluntary action between two humans (drug laws, prostitution laws and others) are completely unnecessary.
MySpace's greatest potential is beyond just the ability to moderate other people. MySpace offers everyone this amazing ability to be open about themselves, reduce embarassment, and even become more honest as a person. When I was in high school, cheating on your girlfriend was common, but secret. Today it is called hooking up and generally not frowned upon. Is this the direction society needs to head? I don't know, but I don't think this "freeing" of embarassment is a bad thing -- isn't sex always the leader in a societal change?
MySpace is powerful in many other ways, connecting cliques with one another to create what is one of the most powerful non-corporate marketing forces ever. My brother's band increased downloads of their music almost 100-fold, and their concerts are significantly more populated by people who are friends-of-friends-of-friends. I also have found that kids as young as 11 won't buy Sony because their clique is connected to another clique that is boycotting the company. How awesome is that?
Right now, MySpace is complete anarchy. Guess what? It works. For an anarchocapitalist such as myself, MySpace combined with eBay could be the utopian anarchist paradise we always dream of, at least in electronic form. Copyright is not a concern (have you seen the reckless abandon of music, video and image piracy? I love it). Sharing of information is open and natural. If someone hurts another person in any way, you can be sure that it will get through all the various local cliques and the offender will be castigated and watched more closely. Even peer review of one's actions is instant. One person can post an angry comment about another, and the "jury of one's peers" comes into action, either defending that person or realizing that the person is probably guilty of the action first posted.
I know that when I was a teenager there were numerous things to be embarassed of. If I had known that others existed with similar emotions or thoughts or habits, I think I would have matured at a faster past (although it can be argued that today's teenageres are very immature but I completely disagree).
MySpace is a profitable venture, slowly taking the place of schools, the law, the mall and even e-mail and IM. Parents need to be aware of it, too. I believe that those who think we need more government in our lives should carefully watch as the next generation gets along just fine, pushing together their millions of decisions and beliefs in the free markets trumping of democracy.
With these freaks that post online all day, with their little friends, and their little hobbies that most people don't care about.
I'm glad I'm a part of a place like Slashdot that doesn't have any of that.
Previous generations got entire words to their name. At least some of us got letters (Generation X is cool). But you kids today have been reduced to punctuation. At least you're better than Generation colon.
Hope you like giving away your hard-earned works for free to Fox.
From the TOS: By posting Content on any public area of MySpace.com, you automatically grant as well as represent and warrant that you have the right to grant to MySpace.com, an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute such information and content to MySpace.com and that MySpace.com has the right to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.
Check out my website: Playfully Clever
If you were to surf myspace you would think every teenager on earth is a complete fucking moron. DON'T mod me troll. Look for yourself.
Backrounds, stupid text colors, backround music, animations, inability to use the english language, and much more. I don't think I can express in words how worried I am at the stupidity of the comming generation.
Myspace Suicide
BusinessWeek reports on The MySpace Generation, aka Generation @
Since when did the MySpace l4mers get op status?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
There are MySpace users who happen to be young. These people alone do not - quite luckily - constitute a generation just as the large numbers of young Slashdot users aren't a generation.
They already have a name for this generation: Generation Y/Millenials. We're the ones who grew up with computers and everyone knows it, but apparently BusinessWeek needed an article.
People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my space)
Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my space)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my space)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my space)
Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my space)
And don't try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my space)
I'm not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin' 'bout my space)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout my space)
This is my space
This is my space, baby
OT, but the reason that I don't care as much about these two as I did about those two is that this seems to be a pretty standard love crime, whereas that was a school shooting that came within a hair of being an order of magnitude worse. Also, I study fringe religions, so I wanted to go through their stuff and see if there was any religious connection like there'd been a few years earlier at OK City. Turned out there wasn't much of one, but I couldn't have discovered that without saving the material before reading it. In some cases I was literally minutes ahead of whoever was shutting the sites down.
Stop learning! Only you can prevent esoterrorism.
Generation whatever articles. It seems they always want to neatly compartmentalize people's behavior by their age group though I know 40+ years old totally connected to the net and that my teenage nephews who hardly go on or know anything about it.
The article seems to be treating all this stuff as new when much of it's been around for a good while. Next, they will be gushing about how people use newfangled email over snailmail. The only message here is that people tend to communicate with the best medium for them which is nothing new.
If the users of MySpace are the future of humanity, God help us all. :-\
Other on line communities with less restrictive requirements are springing up and gaining ground on MySpace. Frankly, I find the whole eletronic thing to be a bit frightening. Hear me out before you mod me down! Nothing digital happens without leaving traces. As the public library in Philadelphia who's fighting with the FBI over one of their "Letters of National Security". It becomes all too easy to obtain records of who did what and who said what. Anonymity is a big part of what makes the internet go 'round and if you take that away, all you have left is what we have in real space now. A bunch of folks with ideas but too afraid to voice them.
2 cents,
Queen B
HDGary secures my bank
I use MySpace regularly, mostly to meet chicks in my area (and it doesn't work all that well, but it's free), but I don't trust the site to hold a lot of formal personal information about me; just informal stuff.
Fox purchased MySpace, and I wish it was someone else like Google. The site is a mess with all sorts of useability and performance problems. It would be nice if someone just setup a good new framework for it, and then "imported" everyone's crap into it. The current MySpace framework is like some student's school project grown out-of-control. Maybe it is.
So anyways, it's really 'Not My Space' for a lot of people. Just a place to waste time. I wouldn't expect it to become somemore more than that.
Goatse.cx alert in that link above.
Teenagers ARE fucking morons.
When i was a teen, i also heard trashy music, also had cheesy jet-fighter posters in my room and wasnt known for my social skills. And the others in my class werent better, either.
The only thing thats different is that with the internet, occasionally older non-parent people stumble upon this stuff, which just didnt happen before the internet.
I am sure if you go offline to an event thats REALLY in in the 12-15 age group, you wouldnt find a much different picture. But you wouldnt go there, while online, its just a click away...
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
I'm 15 and I've never heard of it. What does that mean?
Not that this guy was the first to postulate that interconnectedness would change culture irrevocably in the near-future timeframe either. But I think the essay linked above cuts a little closer to the core issue; Businessweek just now caught on to what has been a rolling snowball in the internet world for what, 4 years now?
Performing sanity checks on your own beliefs is vital in avoiding poisoned koolaid.
If you kill two people, your MySpace page will get soo many hits, and a lot of spam in the comments. I just saved you three pages of sappy journalism.
MySpace is the worst thing to happen to the internet since it's inception. Think of the bandwidth! OH THE HUMANITY!!
I am 26. When people my age were kids they had TV. Television is a one way medium where people are told how to look , how to talk, how to think. Think of the MTV generation.
Today, at last, kids have a better freedom of the press than we did. They can give back to the system instead of just listening silently. And they have so many more channels to chose from, some made by their peers instead of by the big media corporations.
What they say will be childish, stupid and uninformed. Just like the things we used to say when we were their age. But at least they will have an outlet to do so.
I drink to the @ generation. And to the generation before, thank you for making this possible.
Cheers,
Adolfo
PS. Remember when using computers was social suicide?
It's widely known that sites such as MySpace and the forums at GameFAQs.com are "infested" with teens who would appear to lack basic textual communication skills.
Have any researchers who study education performed reviews of such sites? How do such children and teens perform in high school? Is their inability to write sensibly only exhibited online, or does it also creep into their school work?
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
but I had to go check my MySpace.
Oh, And I've never used IM.
That you belong on Slashdot.
It would not appear to be a case of "GNU/Freedom".
a ce.com
If Netcraft is correct, then it would appear that MySpace is run on Windows systems.
http://uptime.netcraft.net/up/graph?site=www.mysp
They're even using IIS, so it's quite likely that there is absolutely no open source or FSF software powering their site.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
In South Korea, only old people use MySpace...
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Try http://tribe.net/ instead. Far more configurable, doesn't crash every 2 mins and the advertising is less intrusive...
Deleted
Of course, I also think that the people on IMs who only have local people on their lists have no respect for the medium.. I had friends that nonchalantly logged into other people's accounts to propagate lies, create fights and stir tensiosn up, with the whole thing being a joke they can clear up with a face to face meeting... Some of us with friends on other continents don't have that luxury, and I don't appreciate that sort of immaturity. Not that that's everyone of course, just one example of why (what seems to me) a vast majority of teengers who just use the net to talk with local friends may not respect the medium as much as those who do use it to create a smaller world.
On a more positive note, I can foresee one thin coming from myspace that oculd have a huge impact on the net as a whole. Blogging is a huge topic right now.. and, in some ways, part of the popularity of blogs might be pinned on things like Livejournals. While occasionally used for the typical teen angsting and drama that we may not consider an advantage to society, the sort of wide teenage base acceptance of these might have led to more acceptance of the 'True' blogs that sprang up afterwords. Maybe Myspace will spawn something simmilar, in the sense of another generation of large, widely used communities. After all, if myspace's layout does offer some advantage or revolution, I'd hate to think that Murdoch is making money off of it.
The reason I still use it is because my friends there use it more than lj or other communities.
... would u sooo do the person above me.." and other silly bulletins that I could not give a shit at all about.
I try to filter as many friends requests as possible to those who are older 23+. But still I see comments like "OMG
I would leave if I could. I guess I need more real life friends closer to home and less online.
http://saveie6.com/
If only there were a way to make it cheap enough for it to be feasible...
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
no, it means that you are fucking lucky to not know this shit.
2ch (2 channel) is a Japanese forum (more similar to slashdot then typical forums) that has over 10 million members from all different walks of life (not mainly teenagers like myspace). There is a US variant (an imitation not related directly or anywhere near as popular) 4ch that gives a good idea of the format. It's an interesting concept due to it's broadness in topics and people who use it. Although myspace seems to be pretty popular with people who aren't computer experts.
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
It does not matter that many are stupid. That has always been true. The problem is their involvement with society as a whole.
Traditionally, those who lacked intellect found work in the manufacturing sector. But these days most manufacturing in the US has been moved to Asia, South or Central America, and Africa.
Now it's been reported that Ford will close a number of North American plants. If I recall correctly, GM made a similar decision recently. Those were amongst the last remaining major manufacturers in the US.
What we will see is a movement of the stupid from the manufacturing jobs which no longer exist to the service jobs. So yes, you probably will have to deal with those sort of people more often, at least for a little while. But an economy cannot survive long on services alone. Manufactured, tangible goods are required for strong economic growth.
As for the future of an economy without manufactures, it's difficult to predict the outcome.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I'm 15 and wish I hadn't, it is all everyone talks about.
Be glad you haven't before now.
I don't preview or spellcheck.
I spend about as many hours a day on line as I can, perhaps 10+ except the days I'm working, and I've never heard of myspace.com.
But yes, there is a definite bunch of people who are in the know about things on line.
In my age group, it was quite rare to have grown up around computers, and you can definetly tell the difference between me and my girlfriend. Though she is no technofobe or luddite, she has trouble with coming to grips with computers and technology some times. This can be easily seen in us slightly under 30 year olds, there are those who can and those who have to struggle to do so -not to mention the real computer haters who want to have nothing to do with the devils spawn.
The younger ones are an altogether different bunch, a huge majority of them are growing up with computers from the beginning. And waaaay better ones with so much more to do. I grew up around Olivettis with floppies and telnet!
Talk about a deprived childhood.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
I am adding BusinessWeek to my blocked site list.
.. "myspace users".
a) MySpace Generation
Appearantly these guys have created a whole new fad/culture/generation simply by posting ominious, useless blogs all over a website. I have to say, MySpace would only be good if we could have more Suicide entries. That last one kept some of my friends up all night trying not to laugh. They can take a pat on the back for what they've made; but let's face it: Where are people like Maddox? I don't see a "Slashdot Generation" either being mentioned in the news, filled with "1. something 2. ???? 3. profit!!!" entries.
b) Promotional companies
It's kind of sad to see how far some companies (as mentioned in the article: Coca-Cola) to 'promote' their products through use of these
I think the _only_ reason this was created was because that kid killed himself. I am still laughing. Fucking brilliant. Kind of funny sometimes to see in how many ways you can construct the word "attention whore" and attach a modern-day occurence to it.
I am slowly awaiting a suicide on LiveJournal, followed by more articles from the media entitled "LiveJournal Jeneration" (note the J)
Invite only... What's an orkut invite worth these days?
Again... http://tribe.net/ better.
Deleted
Not to mention his profile URL is a vandalized Michael Newdow article. A typical loser troll...
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
... and you thought AOL was the worst it could get!
I am Spartacus
... to change the TOS at any time, unilaterally (from Section 2):
:-p
"Even after membership is terminated, this Agreement will remain in effect, including sections 4, 5, 7 and 9-14. MySpace.com's Terms of Use and/or subscription fees that were provided to you at registration may change from time to time. By using the Service and by becoming a Member, you acknowledge that MySpace.com reserves the right to charge for the Service and has the right to terminate a Member's Membership should Member breach this Agreement or fail to pay for the Service, as required by this Agreement."
So who says they won't "pull the trigger" and try to claim rights (even retroactively)?
Hmm... so what's to say they won't suddenly change Section 5 to say "exclusive, in perpetuity rights to all material, even after you leave My Space"? If your novel/mp3/scientific breakthrough is online when they make the change to the TOS, it'll already be too late.
I'm not saying they'd necessarily do this, but it's possible. Better to keep your stuff off of Fox's servers.
ERROR 144 - REBOOT ?
I don't understand how these kids are going to get better at baseball and basketball (or whatever sport) if they sit around in front of a computer all day instead of getting outside and practicing.
We are nerds. We shouldn't rip on these newcomers to the Internet. 0W|\| 7|-|31r \/\/1N|)0z B*x3S maybe, but not rip on them...
I live my life online and I wouldn't be found dead at my space. The Myspace crowd are the emo attenction whores who make the most notice. The majority who "live online" are average geeks who perfer their own company and enjoy reading wikipedia and slashdot. But these people don't gather in huge numbers in a forum sort of way (Slashdot is close I guess), so theres no way to record them.. but please for the love of God don't lump me in with these guys.
I like muppets.
They also hate to wear shirts and/or kiss themselves in the mirror. Dismantling this web atrocity should be the primary focus of the impending 'Generation ~'. Guh.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
Here's an interesting article on why myspace became so popular:
MySpace: Is 'ghetto' a design choice?. Has some choice comments from former employees of myspace as well.
Philosophistry
Why don't they all just f-f-fade away?
What about World of Warcraft and the burgeoning MMORPG space? There are 5.5 million subscribers to WoW, and in total, maybe 20 million people who play these MMORPGs worldwide, from games like Lineage to EverQuest.
I don't think myspace deserves to be associated with a "generation" because myspace hasn't generated its own unique subculture. And it's not really a "generation" as a large portion of the traffic on myspace is by older men looking for skanks.
The WoW and gamer culture, on the other hand, has its own languages and inside jokes. Plus guilds are way more cohesive than these loose organizations or "networks."
I'm creating a social network just for gamers, and WoW players specifically right now: Leetster. This is a link to my profile: pakhuda
Philosophistry
i'm kind of bothered about all these comments worrying about the coming generation because of myspace brainfodder
depending on how old you are, should we judge you on your graffiti from the 1980s or what you carved in your desk in the 1960s?
are you serious? you have a poor, dim view of history
you see a frightening loosening of standards over time before you. it is a false perception, relax
you suffer from historical myopia
there is nothing new under the sun, only dumb teenagers being dumb teenagers, as they did in 4000 BC, as they will do in 4000 AD
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
My impression of MySpace is basically the same as my impression of Livejournal, except I've never seen a MySpace page that wasn't visually obnoxious.
I've used LiveJournal for about four years now as a way to keep up with all my non-local friends and occasionally share stuff, and more recently as an RSS/news feed reader. I know it's not the most popular way to handle blogs, but it works for me. I have always had the tasteful default scheme, and I never visit anyone's personal LJ page. I just see their entries in a nice format.
MySpace, I suspect, is much the same. Largely idiots, but I have a number of non-idiot friends, and some of them are on MySpace. It clearly works as a way to find people, if that's what you want; I've found interesting and intelligent people on Livejournal as well.
MySpace is a community. It has a visually obnoxious format, and since it encourages socializing it attracts all manner of teens, who then characterize it. It doesn't mean you can't use MySpace for intelligent, grown-up social networking, I'm sure. It's just that people who are neither intelligent nor grown up still socialize, and it's just as good (if not better) a tool for unintelligent immature socilalization. As with LJ, that makes up the bulk.
And as for finding people -- when I want to look someone up around campus or at another school, I use Facebook. Most of my friends are college-age and on there. And, thank god, Facebook doesn't allow custom themes, colors, or formats. If it didn't exist, I'd have to look people up on MySpace. But it does, so I don't need to go there yet.
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
It seems to me that the labeling of a generation has become very uncreative and is occurring much too frequently. The only appropriate generation label I can think of dates back to the baby boomers when after the troops returned from World War 2 there was a huge jump in the number of babies.
The next generation became labeled as generation X. Now according to wikipedia Generation List this is the generation I fall into, being born in 1979. The very name generation X gives a feeling of anonymity and utter lack of creativity. However I have not read Douglas Coupland's 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture.
The next generation label is Generation Y and is defined as people born in 1982 to 1991. After that there is generation Z and is given the age constraints of 2000+. Does anyone else see a trend of shortening generation gaps and lack of creativity and definition!
I assume the article naming the next generation as generation @ would be renaming the current generation Y. I am all for this because it gives a much clearer distinction and description of what this upcoming generation is! I would also like to propose shortening the age length of generation X and the baby boomer generation as well.
This is how I perceive the break down of generations
Baby Boomers 1943-1957
Generation X 1958-1973
Generation @ 1974-1998
Name Yet to be Defined 1999-?
I feel this would be a much more accurate depiction of the generation gaps and differences that occur. I also feel that it is unacceptable to label a generation when they are still pre-teen! Your teen years are the years you start to come into yourself and realize who you are.
Now to specifically focus on generation @ you must realize that myspace is not a phenomenon! There is also freindster and even before that findapix which was around before any of the current sites way back in 1999! With that said yes the computer is a ground breaking achievement of our time and the Internet has brought everyone together but alas we are still in the OIL age we have been since the invention of the car. Its time to change CHANGE CHANGE
The lack of change for a hundred years can directly be laid to blame on the current young generation. Look at our apatheiticness to the current political situation! Have we learned nothing from the radicals actions of our parents generation?? But I won't get into all that.
Though, these are the things that define a generation and are a result of their label. So I am going to actually take action for my generation and throw that horrible term Generation Y away! Join with me and cast off your shackles of oppression!
--------- I guess its appropriate to post my myspace O.o my mypsace PS I am an atrocious speller so please don't mind the mistakes!
Myspace, proving that no one can ever figure out the timer mode on their cameras.
i want to bed every girl on my space, just kidding. for real though my space is lame and if you want to say hi to a friend, call them.
I'm sorry but you're wrong. Teens (less than 16 or so) are complete fucking morons. There are exceptions to every rule but I can't believe someone would try to defend them. Everyone who's been a teen knows what it's like.
Joseph?
There is even support groups for myspace addicts! http://www.myspaceaddicts.com/
Myspace is a club. And just like real world clubs, its popularity will be transient. In 3 years, there will be some other Internet social scene that will dominate. And 3 years from then, another one. The existence of this BusinessWeek article alone makes myspace that much less cooler to be on. Remember Friendster? That was becoming like what myspace was, until myspace became cooler. Now Friendster's going bankrupt.
Communication tools, on the other hand, stick around. Look at AOL Instant Messenger. Crappy tool, but still the most popular. I even think facebook will survive this social networking service bubble. Facebook is also like a tool in that it functions as your school's better yearbook/directory.
Quality tools and services are long-term. Clubs and social scenes are ephemeral.
Philosophistry
Yep. Another journalist who thinks that he's found a fad that defines a generation, and labels the kids accordingly. Listen, journalists, as a 21-year-old male, I am not part of:
The MTV Generation
The Jackass Generation
The Napster Generation
And I doubt the teenagers a few years younger than me would appreciate being called a part of a goddamned "MySpace Generation". (If they do, they should be boiled in excrement for all eternity, of course.)
It's just an attempt by a preceding generation to say "Oh look, here's a stupid trend they're all into. Let's define them by it because we're shallow, pretentious wankers and can't write in a manner which doesn't inspire fury in people with two brain cells rubbing together."
Assholes, all of them.
How about Generation Z? As in Generation "ZZZzzzz you're boring me with your stupid attempts to pigeon-hole an entire group of people with your ridiculous corporate labels. Yeah, I know you want to be the guy who coins the name of a Generation, but seriously, you're an uncreative, stupid hack writer, go fuck yourself, go fuck yourself, go fuck yourself..." "
Judging by how readily they'll buy the RIAA's latest shit albums for $20 a pop and how they'll click next through their EULAs faster than an AC posting a stupid fad joke on Slashdot, I'd have to say that they definitely are used to giving away their rights. If they gave a damn about their rights, we wouldn't have nearly as much shit we deal with these days...
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
It's not just the people on MySpace we have to worry about in terms of perversions of the English language... (It's spelled 'coming') ;)
About 99% of the comments I see on any posts on MySpace consist of:
"Thanks for adding me!"
"Thanks for the add!"
More annoying than "first post" because they never end.
no it probably just means you don't know any other humans.
-- lol pwned
how long some people spend customizing their myspces just because they're flash developer nerds who still like to communicate with friends through an easy to use network?
:-\
http://myspace.com/the_nerd
oh wait... that's me..
do 2 minutes of googling and you'll find no evidence of that.
-- lol pwned
samy is my hero.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
damn, I still can't believe that...!! =/
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
I have recently dabbled with MySpace's pages for a script I wrote, and it looks very sloppily written. If you go to the page that displays someone's friends, their name is passed in the URL along with some other useless data, such as both page number and range of results. I don't much care for it.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
In Soviet Russia, ...
I like how that last article is vaguely anti-hunting.
....that is all
Well then I welcome you to the new internet. I present to you this guide:
www.livejournal.com - here you can find the angst filled blogs of teenagers (some who have many blogs at the same time, under different names as though they were different people), it mostly revolves around how they broke up with their lover, and this is some world changing event that has never happened to anyone else before.
www.deadjournal.com - this is for graduates of livejournal, when livejournal simply isn't angsty enough for you - you move to deadjournal, you still dress in your pink halter tops and mini skirts as you prance around the highschool halls, but when you go home you get in a fight with your parents over your (clothing, marks, obligations, nothing in particular), turn on the linkin park, and tell the world your slitting your wrists to save yourself from the pain of living, but really your typing this - which is clear indication your wrists are intact.
www.deviantart.com - a battleground for many dissonant internet addicted groups, you have the anti-social, demi-goth group that fills DA with morbid poetry and pictures of half naked goth chicks covered in blood. You have the people who use DA as a collection for their attempts at still art and scenery shots, mostly trying to balance centered objects 5/8ths in the frame without it looking like a snapshot. Then there are the furries, who draw a picture of a person who is half animal, then write erotica about this person and their steamy (and disturbing) adventures.
www.myspace.com - discussed above, mostly a collection of people trying to define themselves as an individual, but failing horribly as they either give up halfway, or end up defining themselves as a member of the nameless myspace community
www.somethingawful.com - a comedy outlet, mostly involving submitted photoshop pictures, and 100 page arguments on how to make 2+2=5 (as example).
www.slashdot.org - the pinnacle of the internet, this is where all the news no one bothered to report goes, and then is discussed at length by people who think debating nothing on the internet with strangers constitutes a healthy social relationship
that's all I've got for major stops right now, there are of course AOL IM and MSN IM that are also flush with nooblettes chatting endlessly on the topic of nothing. IRC chat rooms, where warez and pr0n is traded endlessly between servers and leechers, and where people can spend days answering trivia questions to bots against other equally bored leechers (or bot fishers).
You mean MySpace isn't just another front for MSN Spaces?
I mean, at a glance they seem so similar.
The college kids myspace is thefacebook.com is targeted at college kids. It's nice because it allows you to put your phone number and other info online but restrict who can see it. This comes in handy when you are trying to get hold of someone for a class project but you don't have their number. But the two greatest things is that it requires a university email which weeds out the middle schoolers, high schoolers, and parents. And it doesn't allow you to customize yourpage making information easy to find.
It also has a really cool approach to sharing photos and allows you to tag which of your friends are in them and links it to their account. Th
Forty million illiterate assholes who run up my data transfer bills by transcluding the images from my site on their shitty circle jerk home pages.
I'm almost 25, and I only really know of myspace because my younger sister is on it and I noticed on her computer. I ended up making an account just to look around for people I knew. Turns out a pissload of people I know are on it. Though I resist the urge to start adding "friends", lest I actually begin to use the service.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
I've been on MySpace for just about 2 weeks now, after first regarding the site as an jumble of crappy pages a few months ago, I've learned it can be a very unique and enjoyable place for the average computer user or guru both. A few notes:
The code is buggy as can be but primarily works after reloading the page a couple of times.
Great social networking factor. I've messaged friends I haven't talked to since high school and chatted with college friends whom I've already lost touch with.
For new bands this is really an invaluable resource for which to create a simple website that informs fans and create evangelists of your music.
Being a part time concert photographer I've already received orders for prints of my photography as well as met may others involved or wishing to be involved in the field. I've also made contacts with a number of bands and old friends involved in the music industry whom I've also been out of touch with.
I wish Google would have purchased the company, but let's hope Fox does a decent job with it.
Try it out, you just might like it
-Chris
http://www.myspace.com/concertphotos
Well, I had to say something about this because I am in fact, a 16-year old with a MySpace account (well, myspace.com/seroth if you really wanna see it). I've been reading a lot of comments about myspace and all the teenagers on it and quite frankly you guys are MOSTLY right. However, I got a little mad when some stereotypes came into play, saying how most of the teenagers (myspace has people above 19 and is in fact mostly filled with older people, but yes a lot of teenagers use it) are in general, a bit slow and well, not very hopeful for our future. My answer is that, although more than half the people in my school who have it could be considered legally stupid, most of the people I am "friends" with are real people and are actually quite smart and for lack of a better word, enlightened. YES, myspace can lead to less embarrassment.YES, some people on it are just trying to get to the most friends ever. But has anyone thought of the potential for it? A while back I read an article in WIRED about how MySpace can be used as the next MTV because many start-up bands and artists are using it to help them gain publicity and fans and several concerts and concert tickets are being made known through this. Not to mention the fact that maybe in the future, we may even see small businesses using it as marketing tools (well, I did say maybe). So, stop stereotyping. And look for the small good things in that package of crap. Because we are there. And don't worry about the future. It's gonna be taken care of.
If you don't have time to do it right, when do you have time to do it again?
Anyone else think of the story of the (in)famous irc suicide whenever they read one of those myspace tragedies?
...the entire U.S. Internet.
;)
Geez, I thought all that ICANN DNS business was settled amicably. No need to go rubbing other nation's faces in it
http://www.ratemybody.com/profile.aspx?id=FEASTTTT
Thats me... not ALL computer people are fat nerds...
I like RMB because when you search you can sort by rating... lol
Has anyone noticed what most of the images of people
at MySpace have in common. They can be grouped.
I wonder if MySpace could be used as a people classifier...
It's not all crap.
Ha. Except for this.
http://www.myspace.com/theschmoejoes
(Shameless plug)
http://rachelstock.blogspot.com/2005/11/quick-guid e-to-myspacecom-sorry-rees.html
set up your web server to send pictures of stoats to UAs with a MySpace Referer header. Or penises.
Ok, I don't know myspace, never visited the site, don't know what it is about. :)
So I followed the link and went to their front page. and there were nothing at all that told me what it was about and no reason for me to stay.
Well I clicked around and found out that it was another site for those people who like to see themself on a website.
I guess I am not the Myspace generation.
Most of "Generation-X" did not wear Grunge nor ever live in the streets.
Most of "Y" does not subscribe to "WIRED" nor ever heard of Slashdot, let alone post here.
Now we are told that you must have a "MySpace" account to be counted, somehow...
So whomever spends the most money, on the dumbest things possible, in order to make the biggest asses out of themselves that they can -- that little group is chosen to represent the majority of a generation?
I must disagree.
I suggest you read Slashdot
1) There are so many low-class/stupid/aesthetically-challenged/offensiv e-in-some-other-way people on MySpace and I can't stand that.
2) MySpace is mostly populated by teenagers, and this particular batch of teenagers is so much worse than teenagers from my generation.
3) MySpace is ripping off the people who use it, through TOS that allow MySpace to profit from content created by MySpace denizens.
4) The content on MySpace is total crap. There's nothing of value on MySpace. Ten thousand monkeys could create better content.
The "I can't stand the people on MySpace" response is similar to the bitching and moaning about blogging, which comes up on Slashdot constantly these days. On the one hand, Slashdotters are happy to carry the torch of freedom, demanding that Big Media should no longer control us, that TV should get hit with a clue stick, and so on. Yet when a community does spring up and people of all kinds, the unwashed digital masses, get on board, it freaks out a lot of Slashdotters. This is so reminiscent of the "if you don't know how to run UNIX, you shouldn't be doing things on the Internet" attitude so prevalent among alpha-geeks in the mid 1990s. The Internet shouldn't just be for geeks, any more than athletics should just be for jocks, or beaches should just be for beautiful people.
Not everyone on MySpace is a teenager. But people seem hungup on the large number of teens on MySpace. Teenagers are teenagers are teenagers are teenagers. My father's generation was the one that screwed up the Vietnam War and turned the whole nation upside down. When they started causing trouble in the early 60s, they were the scourge of America. They turned out ok. A bit self-righteous, but ok. ;-) My generation was described as a bunch of shiftless slackers when we were teens. We had no soul, no drive, no moral compass, and nothing to contribute to society. Somehow that opinion changed when we hit the workforce in big numbers and contributed to the boom in the Information Economy. The teenagers of today are obsessed with the superficial, spoiled, and unconnected to reality. I'm sure by the time they reach their 20s and 30s, they'll somehow magically be transformed into good citizens. Funny how that works, isn't it?
The using MySpace are just like any slice of a given population. Some of them have interesting things to say and some of them don't. Some of them are creative and others aren't too imaginative. Maybe the venue attracts one type of person more than another, but generalizing about content on MySpace, even if the generalization is correct, doesn't mean that there's nothing of value on MySpace.
As for the Terms of Service, MySpace users are making an exchange. They get to tap into a huge network of people and information without cost. In return, MySpace (Fox) can use content from MySpace if it wants to, for commercial gain. 99.9% of the content on MySpace, no matter how good, is not going to be used for commercial purposes by Fox, simply because there's so much of it. The content that is good enough (and that depends on how you define "good") to be used by Fox may in some way be exploited commercially. Do you really think that the creator of such content wouldn't be happy to have their content publicized by Fox?
Think back to when you were a bit younger, and imagine that something like MySpace existed at the time. You'd probably be pretty excited by it, perhaps because you hadn't yet become jaded to all things Internet, perhaps because you liked the idea of communicating with people outside of the narrow confines of the community you lived in.
MySpace isn't for me. It obviously isn't for a lot of Slashdot regulars. So what. Get off the high horse. Diversity is good. Peer to peer communication is good. Or should we just go back to the monoculture of NBC, CBS, and ABC?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Back in the day you looked up people on icq , searched a specific age range, checked the profile, requested pics, etc. This is the same, but all in one, its ok, my only issue with it, is all these "secne" Kids, or these emo "scar on my life" kids are lame, and i hate all the banners and ads, but its ok overall.
This is college?! Man, we need to get these kids some drugs ... STAT! What ever happened to sloth and lethargy? I want those jaws slack! Pupils dilated! I want a stack of dishes this high. I want to see BEDSORES people!
No, you're lucky!
I have a friend who has over 1000 myspace friends and fucks random ones all the time. She has a couple STD's and has no idea from where they came, but continues to fuck anything that myspaces. Her vagina is so ruined that there's no chance of her ever having children because of the STD's. Have fun.
On the plus side, the gene pool is better off.
Where have you been living? Under a rock? MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch.
"isn't sex always the leader in a societal change"
huh? Cheating on one's partner is considered a path to enlightenment and social utopia? Ever heard of trust? The basic glue that keeps us together?
"If someone hurts another person in any way, you can be sure that it will get through all the various local cliques and the offender will be castigated and watched more closely. Even peer review of one's actions is instant. One person can post an angry comment about another, and the "jury of one's peers" comes into action, either defending that person or realizing that the person is probably guilty of the action first posted."
So in other words it's just human society running as normal.
"I believe that those who think we need more government in our lives should carefully watch as the next generation gets along just fine, pushing together their millions of decisions and beliefs in the free markets trumping of democracy."
Herein lies the quintessential hypocrisy of your thought. A couple of paragraphs before this you were championing "hooking up" and free love. In other words cheating and breaking trust with a fellow human being. Yet you think that people inherently get along? Methinks you need to get out more.
I actually find it ironic that you propagate a free market of sex over other forms of markets.
The music industry has been lapped, lassoed and tattoed by the internet. Payola and other barriers to entry for new bands are rapidly crumbling as listeners of CDs and radio shift to online music. Traditional business deals for bands have almost always left the musicians screwed without a kiss. Tours and T-shirts have been the major income streams for most successful groups.
Now social networks are superceding the music and broadcasting corporations for publicity and distribution. Bands need to be heard before they can be paid. And they need to perform to build a fan base.
Get the clues from Wired:
The Hit Factory Who needs major labels, marketing, or airplay? A social networking site is getting more hits than Google -- and turning invisible bands into mini entertainment networks. How MySpace became the MTV for the Net generation.
By Jeff Howe
The members of Hawthorne Heights have no business being rock stars. They play a strain of punk that has consigned innumerable bands to the obscurity of dive bars and pirate radio. For the past three decades, a devotion to this stripped-down, anticommercial music has meant never quitting your day job.
And yet here they are on a dusty summer day in Pomona, California, playing for thousands of adoring fans. Hawthorne Heights is a big draw at this year's Warped Tour, a movable punk feast featuring more than 300 bands on 48 North American stops. The kids in the audience - a multiracial mix of teens from across Southern California - appear transported, pushing toward the front of the stage where slam dancers crash against each other like pinballs. Those in the front rows chant the lyrics with red-faced intensity. They've memorized the entire set.
Hawthorne Heights is touring the country in a plush bus. The quintet's debut album, The Silence in Black and White, has sold more than 500,000 copies since its release last year, and the group has appeared on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and been on MTV's TRL. The five young men from Dayton, Ohio, are living the rock-and-roll dream - but they took a highly unconventional path to get there. The band achieved its popularity without any real radio or TV airplay, a feat unheard-of a few years ago. They aren't signed to a major label, and they don't want to be. They don't need industrial-strength marketing campaigns or heavy rotation.
What they have is MySpace, a community Web site that converts electronic word of mouth into the hottest marketing strategy since the advent of MTV. Massively popular, MySpace is nominally a social networking site like Friendster, but nearly 400,000 of the site's roughly 30 million user pages belong to bands. The rest belong mostly to teens and twentysomethings who attend the groups' shows, download their songs, read their blogs, send them fan mail, and enthusiastically spread the word...MORE
There are no absolutes.
I just ate at the Palo Alto Cafe on Middlefield. 18 people and 10 laptops. At the next table was a cute young couple, both dressed in black. Between them, they had two laptops, a Blackberry, a graphing calculator, at least one iPod, and cell phones. All in use.
From the article:
> You have just entered the world of what you *might* call Generation @.
Everything I've seen in research publications, books, and surveys refers to this generation as "Millenials". I was on my universities activities board a couple years ago when this generation (those born between roughly 1980-2000) started to enter college. At the national conference (NACA) there were presentations about how the face of college was going to change and how our generation (as I fit in there) have different tendancies and use technology more and/or differently then previous generations.
Evidently many individuals who fit into the age group held a conference and figured out what the call themselves years ago instead of having the previous generation brand them (as attempted in the article).
also, an article I kept as a result of that conference:
http://www.mondaymemo.net/010702feature.htm (from July 2001)
We don't need an "overrated" so much as we need a "you completely missed the parent's point, dumbass..."
You actually spend precious time reading EULAs?
...Just another emo* breeding ground.
*Emo: As in, the kids who listen to heartbroken musicians of this generation pour heart and soul into rock, metal, heavy metal, etc. Some habits include weak attempts at self-mutilation, depression, and all out self-pity. Often mistaken as Goth or Skater.
Seriously, all forms of the name "I_hate_life" are taken. And don't forget those cursed X's they love to abuse.
"I'm a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm."
Baron von Doomsday uses MySpace. Bow down before his might!
Would you shut the fuck up about how people mistype shit all the time? All that matters is that you understand their message, not how they perfect it for you.
I refuse to be associated with a bunch of computer illiterate, wannabe "hackers", emos and generally stupid people >.>
Goten Xiao
For you myspace nay-sayers, I recommend repeated listens of the first track on Bob Dylan's 3rd album.
The first few lines of that post described me in every way!
If I'm really that bad I might kill myself
PS Does anybody know where to get a shotgun in the UK I tried Froogle/eBay and I'm all outta ideas.
There is a reason FOX wanted myspace.com....It is nothing more than a place for crap bands to advertise freely (although some good ones yes) and if you look at the types of people there they are FOX's target market. Dumb, big media crazy, all think alike (read favorites and comments etc) and self absorbed! Check it out it I speak the truth.
These online blogs tend to be filled with idiots. Xangas - for instance - are filled - plagued - with political blogs of 13 year olds with opinons that are devoid of intelligence and thought. They basically read "political" books and parrot the opinions fed to them in the books. And whenever anyone with a different opinion says so, they can't help but insult the hell out of each other until neither of them has any dignity left. I see this equally from both sides of the coin. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can't form his or her own opinion has a worthless opinion.
Myspaces are different in the sense that it's just so utterly pointless. It's not like people don't have enough e-contact every day. We have e-mail, we have instant messaging. Now people make myspaces and put their "profile info" up and write about themselves and more about themselves. Then they mention why their life pretty much epitomizes sorrow and individuality, and how their lives are so much worse than everyone else's, which makes them important, and thus they must talk about it more.
It is not about community. It is about marketing. If marketing is a way of life... whatever...
"People who boast about their IQ are losers."
-Stephen Hawking
...samy is their hero.
I read
In soviet russia AC EULA albums post your rights!
On one hand, I totally agree. Myspace is a giant pile. It's not reliable, the UI is horrible, every other member's site is littered with windows media files, it's owned by News Corp, etc.
On the other hand, all of my old college friends are on MySpace. I've been able to keep in contact with people that I would have otherwise never heard from again.
Unlike Friendster or Facebook, MySpace simply let people sign-up without jumping through hoops. You didn't have to be attending a university, you didn't have to be invited by a current member, etc. Consequently, a TON of people seem to be on MySpace now.
The ability to see you friend's address books is a great idea.
Now, if someone could make it less crappy, I'd be happy as hell. (google?)
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
No, but I've read some of the more commonly used ones (not just when the GPL, MPL, or another free license that I've read before is used as an "EULA") and seen where this sort of shit goes haywire.
Yes, I need to get a life...
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
Isn't the parent of your post talking about teenagers specifically? Unless all your friends are teenagers in the ~12-15 range, you don't have much ground to stand on with regard to your "he's a troll" statement.
And if they are 12-15, you have bigger problems than being a "piss-poor socializer outside of an ASCII environment".
I play FFXI, you insensitive clod.
Seriously though, set it up as one of your "Communities."
Scott Swezey
I've been working on a project called Appleseed, which aims to be a distributed MySpace that anybody could set up a site and "connect" it to the rest of the appleseed sites.
Since when does hunting deer entail a "capacity for violence" against humans? That's bullshit, and the author ought to know it; he's probably a vegan.
Good monkeys! *applauds* You've managed to study yet another generation for twenty years in embarrassed silence before grunting yet another meaningless, irrelevant, generalized, stereotypical label. And what a relief! Our collection of generation X, Y, #, *, w, +, and 9? was getting low.
Being 17, I have to say I'm ashamed of being part of a generation called "The MySpace Generation". Reason? Take a look at this bulletin posted by a friend.
do not stop reading this or something bad will happen.
One day, Sarah was walking home from school when her boyfriend drove by and honked at her to get in. She got in his car and he drove her to the lake. Her boyfriend said he was going to tell her something very important. Sarah could have sworn he was going to propose. However, he flicked her off, pushed her in the lake and yelled, "I am breaking up with you, you awful *!! I hate you and I think that maybe you should just end your * life! DUMB * *!!!" He laughed and drove off. It was a very cold day. Sarah climbed out of the lake, freezing cold, and feeling the worst she had in her entire life. She got home went in a hot bath, and slit her wrists and died in the bathtub. Her parents yelled and screamed at her to get out until they finally broke the door down. They saw no body, but the entire bathroom was dripping with her blood. Her mom went insane and killed herself three days later, her dad is in prison, accused of murder. Later that week, Sarah's exboyfriend was taking a shower when she came from the drain, rotting and bloody, with a razor in her hand and said "Goodbye Jason." She cut his throat before he could scream.
If you do not repost this with the title "100 ways to break up", you are a heartless * and Sarah come to you in the shower from the drain, and will kill you the same way she killed her boyfriend.
You have 13 minutes
Point?
Common sense isn't so common anymore.
The answer is that there is none. Every time a particular culture comes up with one, it is only relevant to that particular culture at that particular time. As the culture changes the ideals shift (see IQ tests), and as cultures die out, they simply become irrelevant, historical curiosities. There is no objective way or measuring Intelligence, because there is no one Intelligence, but rather a multitude, perhaps and infinite number of different intelligences, which can only be gauged by how well they "function" in the actual material world. Given that this "MySpace Generation" (what a lame name...) is making the next fold in US culture simply by being the generation that will be coming into power, I'm sure they will function very well. Each new generation creates its own new categories for functionality, and in the process of doing this, in their youth, are invariably declared a dysfunctional generation because they do things different than the previous generation.
Making declarations like this shows that one is incapable of seeing that something is changing from what they are used to, comfortable with, without making an objective value judgement which is invariably wrong, and thereby showing themselves to possess a very small world view which is basically entirely occupied by their own personal view.
Maybe this is why I spend more time reading my friend's MySpace blogs than Slashdot discussions like this one. They may not exactly be though provoking, but at least they're not dangerously stupid.
the people you are responding to have historical myopia
every generation that has ever lived looks at the teenagers around them and is scared that civilization is ending
this was true in 4000 BC, it will be true in 4000 AD
but, just as you said, civilization is not ending
and just like you, i don't understand why these people are unfamiliar with what a teenager is
have they forgotten what they were like?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Myspace is just a place to be whatever the hell you want. Nothing more. Nothing Less. Let there be music, disregard for copyright and risquee photos for all!
I can see it now...
Welcome to MySpace.com!
Teaching an entire Generation CSS since 2003
-jX
Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
For people who have lived abroad, immigrated or traveled for long periods of time, social networks are a handy tool. It allows you to seek and find people from your own country, state and city that may live near your new Location.
Thats why i started my own, http://www.vivamigente.com/.
I believe there is a need for such a website. Well see...Its BETA still.
Andy
The ancient societies were cohesive and the teenagers were not these angst-filled emoing dramatic douchebags that you see today.
teenagers are angst-filled emoing dramatic douchebags because of psychology, not sociology
this is true if they grow up in tokyo or tierra del fuego
and if they grew up today, thousands of years ago or thousands of years in the future
and saying something like "ancient societies were cohesive" is the very definition of historical myopia: that chaos is something unique to today, and the past was simple and pat. you're not talking history, you're talking mythology
you need to familiarize yourself with some basic ideas of human nature- the good, bad, and ugly, that are constant across time, geography and culture
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
there was an article in slashdot a few months ago about how in all previous eras of humanity, there are always archives, because they are of real things: stone, paper, etc that fade with time but do not disappear and are usable by people directly
but the era we live in will fade to nothing, because it's all just electronic bits... and even if a cd miraculously survives the degradation they say is inevitable, they say no one will know how to decipher it
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Quote of the day:
Mrs. Guild: "Tom, there's no MySpace in my classroom!"
Tom: "This isn't MySpace. It's the Nevada Database of Registered Sex Offenders."
'Social Networking' was such a neat term, now it just means um, like a network, where people are social. Again specificity is the victim of people who can't be arsed to know what their saying.
She messaged me on Myspace, we talked, met in the real world *gasp* , things worked out.
Have you any idea how frustrating it is trying to communicate with these morons? Are you really saying that we should let language deteriorate to the level of these online communities? Here is a legal threat in MySpace talk to help you decide the answer to these questions for yourselves.
This is not just a stereotype, it is a fighteningly large percentage of the users. Isn't the prevelance of moron speak within online communities a sure sign that the education system is failing? Should we destroy thousands of years human development and reduce language to short gutteral sounds for the benefit of these idiots?And my only friend on there younger than 20 is my little sister. Most of the people I know follow the rule that you don't add someone as a friend unless you know them in real life of you're a fan of their music.
I can also count at least 10 people that I had lost touch with in meatworld and probably would never have seen again if it weren't for myspace, I owe the awesome time I had at a party last night to an invitation from one of those guys.
It's just a whole bunch of people who aren't geeks. (There's a few geeks on there too BTW) Lots of myspacers are whack, but lots of geeks are whack too, so deal with it. It's a social site, part of being social is putting up with the fact that there's LOTS of people around who suck or you don't see eye-to-eye with. It's also teaching (if slowly) non geeks how to develop some form of internet ettiquette(sp?) and bringing more people online. I like that, it's bringing more people closer to my level.
I will await the reply from someone saying there is no ettiquette(sp?) on there from someone who doesn't use the site in the first place :)
Think of someone with average intelligence. Now think 1/2 the world is dumber than that guy.
That said, I think the entire site has some good and some bad in it, of course. The site is a great place for people to find others with similar interests, as a prior poster mentioned. Just like some people join clubs with the purpose of finding friends, myspace is just another "club."
I've never been a strictly private person, keeping myself cloistered from human contact seemed foolish to me and I usually give away a bunch of details about my life, but nothing on the scale of most of the people on Myspace. That is the key to the whole thing though.
The difference between a club and Myspace is that Myspace is often times freakishly personal, to the point where it seems like the person posting has absolutely no concept of privacy. Just like "Reality" televison, this is perhaps a symptom of our voyeur society.
Have you ever have to stop when driving because everyone is looking at the scene of the crash? Ever watch the news, where most of the stuff they report is gruesome in order to capture your attention? (There is a lot to the news, this is just ONE aspect of it. If you want to bash the news, don't do it for JUST this reason.)
This extends beyond just individuals too! The Information Age has seen the rise of the internet, of things like Google, but it has also spawned companies like Acxiom. Acxiom's mission is to "create and deliver customer and information management solutions that enable many of the largest, most respected companies in the world to build great relationships with their customers. Acxiom achieves this by blending data, technology and services to provide the most advanced customer information infrastructure available in the marketplace today." http://www.acxiom.com/default.aspx?ID=1636&Display ID=18
It should be obvious to people that there are giant databases out there storing everything from what we buy to where we live, what our houses are worth, who are neighbors are, what kind of reputation we have, etc... The entire industry is dedicated to voyeurism, and of course they get away with it. Myspace is just another example of all this.
alright.
Philosophistry
I have a friend who has hooked up with at least a dozen women from myspace. I think myspace fills a need for a lot of slutty women who need to feel important. Plus they're just sluts to begin with. They're gonna get what they deserve!
Do tell me more about this friendster and facebook phenomenon. It must be a whole new paradigm shift in abstract relationship building synergies!
MySpace gets the lowest-life, most guido New Jersey and Long Island trash people I've ever seen, the teenagers who are too dumb to know any better, and a couple of pervs I know in their later 20s who just go there to pick up on dumb 17 year old girls.
Yeah, and they gits lotsa niggers and wops too. Slashdot: Paragon of free thinking and tolerance.
http://www.fatshirts.net/product_info.php?products _id=28
v4sw6PU$hw6ln6pr4F$ck 4/6$ma3+6u7LNS$w2m4l7U$i2e4+7en6a2X h
I would personally worry about your own thought processes, in taking one data point and coming to such a broad conclusion. What if we created a study that took a representative sample average creative output of teenagers? I'm willing to bet we would see that the average "teenager creative output" (TCO) has been consistently crappy over the past decades. In fact, with better nutrition and education, I would bet it has improved significantly. This would parallel the James Flynn effect.
From a biological perspective, these kids very likely are not much different from your generation -- so I'd strongly question any claim that their inherent intelligence levels are significantly different.
In other words, humans are and will be acting (and expressing themselves) just as stupidly or cleverly as they ever did. This may be comfort for some, a source of horror and despair for others.
If you allow HTML, you allow JavaScript. Yahoo tries and tries to filter HTML in email and yet every now and than another trick emerges which allows JavaScript to be executed. And once you have JavaScript, you have the session cookies for all the people who read your email or visit your profile.
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
Probably nothing - unless you live in Brazil, where it is very popular. Nobody elsewhere seems to use it.
Freedom: "I won't!"
That's actually open to interpretation.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
MySpace isn't a waste, but it's certainly not quality time spent either. In fact, it doesn't serve to do much beyond perpetuate social drama. Social, community, blah blah blah. This is a community, but at least I learn things here I would otherwise never know. MySpace is a shell of a premise packed with inane BS from across the globe. It's a fad and nothing more. It's certainly not cutting edge social commentary. However, I have heard local bands/businesses tend to promote their stuff via MySpace, and is rather effective in that manner. For as long as /. lives, I will continue to avoid such sites as it's not nearly as productive. Besides, I like reading coherent text, not hacked-up-leet-speak-dribble.
...and the same thing happened, but with facebook instead of myspace. The media started reporting details of her profile. Here's an article about it...
-tom
Oops...the ARTICLE
-tom
We will all become generation colon.
It will happen around the time you turn 40.
Don't piss off your doctor.
My Heart Is A Flower
What is it with people that have to "label" this and that? Labeling is one thing but labeling a generation is about as useful as saying you're a Libra or some other zodiac symbol.
Gen X, Gen Y, Gen @, Brat Pack, Rat Pack, etc. etc. It is so sickening and annoying.
I am venting, I think the whole thing should be ignored. It's as useless and pointless as watching the E! channel. What CRAP!!!
Pay attention to something of importance instead of media driven drivel.
its so weird that people get all worked up about myspace and teens on myspace and get all rude about it.
i'd think it quite immature to be honest. i mean, if one doesn't appreciate a certain thing, they could voice their opinions but to degrade a generation or a class of people isn't a very mature thing to do. what then would make them different from the very teenagers they consider to be whiners and rubbish talkers.
surely myspace, friendster, hi5 and the whole works aren't for some people. similarly, wikipedia and all those other community things.
yep, teenagers eventually are going to grow up and become sensible adults (well most of them) but at least they have the opportunity to touch an entire world (electronically) compared to the days when all that connected anyone was CNN!
remember ICQ and IRC. hmm.. funny world we live in.