MySpace

Over the past year, MySpace has been gaining in popularity. New movies, musical artists, and even your neighbor can now have their own personal profile. It’s more shocking to hear of someone who doesn’t have their own MySpace profile than of someone who does.

What It Is

The main idea of the site is to create a personal profile, which includes your name and birthday, religion, sexual orientation, yearly income, and any other personal or not-so-much-so information you can think of that you dare put on your page.

You can add friends that you already know to your list or meet new people by “browsing” using the MySpace search engine. You may also add pictures, videos, music, and update a blog, all of which can be commented by your friends on your list.

There’s also a messaging system which is a bit more of a private way to communicate with your friends, but of course there’s also the bulletin board which is the opposite–it allows you to make a message visible to all your friends on your list.

To Join

Membership is free. Must be 14 or over to join.

Advantages

Some advantages to MySpace are:

you can keep in touch with all of your friends,
find new music and movies,
and best of all, you can meet tons of new people, some who are in your area.

It’s possible to find a dating prospect and a new movie to take them to along with a new best friend and the best song you’ve ever heard all in one trip to the website. The more you browse, the more you learn and the more people you meet.

Disadvantages

The one main disadvantage to MySpace is internet predators. Many people think it could never happen to them, but it is a serious issue and you should always be careful when meeting people over the internet.

The vast majority of members are trustworthy and wonderful, but there are a select few that will ruin it for everyone. Be careful and be smart when talking to new people, a rule that can apply to any forum-type website.

Watch out for scams, spam, and false advertising. As with most sites, there will be junk that piles up around the banners or on the bulletin board.

Some spammers create accounts and ask you to be their friend, offering you adult material or special offers. Be aware that if the person seems to have something too good to be true, most likely it is.

Another thing to keep in mind is a lot of employers now check for MySpace profiles. If you give an employer your e-mail address, that opens up the opportunity for them to search for you on MySpace. Be careful what sort of information you put on your personal page–a lot of employers will not hire a person who advertises inappropriate things about themselves.

Rating: 4

Overall, MySpace is a great site that is growing in popularity. I would give this site a four out of five. It creates wonderful opportunities to expand your horizons and is great for everyone as long as you use your internet smarts.