Friend Requests and Reading Comments: What’s the Deal with MySpace?

Myspace. You know exactly what I’m talking about right? Just the mere mention of the word and more than likely you’re wondering if you have any comments or messages posted, or maybe you need to change the song on your page because you’re tired of hearing it, I mean, it was sooo last week. Or, perhaps you’ve begun contemplating what new poses to come up with for pictures to post on myspace so others can get to know the “real you.”

Before I begin this – don’t think that I don’t have a myspace account because I do. It all began with my sister making up a dummy account for me because she wanted to add me as her friend. It quickly become a slight addiction when my sister would call me at work saying, “You HAVE to check your myspace because I left you the funniest comment.” Sure, I was interested so I checked the page and sure enough, that Saved By the Bell clip of Jesse doped up on caffeine pills was hilarious! And so, it began. A few times a day I would check to see who left me a comment or if anyone asked to be my friend. I needed my myspace fix for the day!

One day, something halted me in my routine check-up on myspace – a friend request. But this was no usual friend request – it was from someone in high school I barely remember talking to. Yes, this, my friends, was a friend request from someone who just wanted me to be another number for their friend collection. This is what I couldn’t understand about the world of myspace – who cares about the number of friends you have? You only receive responses from 5 of them – 10 of them if you’re lucky. I quickly decided that I wouldn’t approve this person because it would mean I would be part of their network which would lead their friends to me and I could not stand the thought of having to decide whether or not approve somebody because they used to go to my elementary school (I guess us having nap time together in the same classroom qualifies us as myspace friends). I mean, there’s a guilty feeling that goes into denying someone or ignoring them altogether. You know what I’m talking about fellow myspacers! There’s no way your mouse doesn’t hover over the “deny” button before you give in and click approve and send off a short message saying, it was great to hear from you! How are those naps coming along for ya?

Myspace has definitely sky rocketed in its popularity and has put face to face communication on the back burner. Why should I have to see somebody in person when I can just comment on their pictures and/or videos? And what about those blogs? You can definitely still stay in tune to what’s happening in your friends’ lives because you can read their blog and their posted bulletin.

I’m not trashing myspace – it’s just that another cool way to stay in touch with people that live across the country has quickly been taken over my youngsters as a way to show off how “cool” they are with the number of friends they have or the kind of background or even the song they choose to ornate their myspace page. I guess the high school phase of who’s most popular has found a way to be dragged on, yet again. It definitely is a fun way to keep in contact with someone because there’s no better feeling than signing on and that bright red print is yelling out at you, New Messages or New Comments and the mother of ’em all, Friend Requests! All I’m saying is – those of you who I don’t know, please don’t ask me to be your friend because I DON’T KNOW YOU. Myspace will not make me know you better. Save yourself the pain of being denied or ignored altogether, please! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to check my page to see how many hits I’ve gotten since 10 minutes ago.