The MySpace Phenomenon

MySpace is a social paradise for teens, but to their concerned parents it is a place where danger lurks around every corner. For people like my younger sister Gabrielle and my father, MySpace is an everyday battle. He worries about her MySpace use and what type of people she is meeting. He does not understand what it is about MySpace that is so attractive to young people. She argues that “everyone is doing it” and “I’m not stupid, Dad”. My dad is nervous about sexual predators and the image that my sister is putting out. He wants to make sure that she is not doing or saying things that are inappropriate for her age. After all, she is only thirteen, so technically she doesn’t even meet MySpace’s minimum age requirement until her fourteenth birthday this May.

The issues in my family are not uncommon, and for that reason I decided to do my research on the topic of the “MySpace Phenomenon”. My goal for this research was to find out what is drawing teens to MySpace, explore its effect on teens’ social connections, find out what concerns parents associate with MySpace, and what steps parents and children can take to minimize the dangers of MySpace. I feel that MySpace is a great social tool and when used properly, it offers many benefits to teens. I want my dad and other parents to understand this and be able to come to an agreement that will allow their teens to continue using MySpace and ease their own worries.

I began my research with the websites provided by Professor Booth. Then, I went on to Google and searched for some information. While searching on Google I found a great deal of valuable information from a psychologist named Larry Rosen who has spent 25 years studying the “psychology of technology”. His studies have included more than 20,000 people from 23 countries (Rosen 1).

Next I visited the school library database and performed an advanced search under Gale Academic One File with the limiters “peer reviewed” and “full text” and keywords “social networking” and “MySpace”. I did another search for an author I had seen while searching on Google, “Nancy Willard”. Each of these searches provided me with one valuable source. Next, I read through each article and wrote down all of the information I would need for my works cited such as the date, and main points. The hardest part of the research process was narrowing down the information from all of the sites and deciding what to use. The remainder of my report is a summary of my findings.

MySpace was launched in 2003 as a network for amateur musicians to get their names out (Farnsworth 1). It is now the largest and most popular social networking site, allowing users to create personalized profiles to share information about themselves with others. They can upload photos, music, artwork, videos, play games, and communicate in a number of different ways. It is particularly attractive to teens because it allows them to interact with each other, to develop a sense of freedom and belonging, and to establish connections with people (Lamb 1). It “provides a forum for teenagers to develop a sense of their personal identity through communication with friends and strangers, which is the likely reason that “teens pour into MySpace at the astounding rate of several hundred thousand per day (Rosen 5-6)”.

Many people carry the misconception that MySpace is taking away from face-to-face connections. The truth is that MySpace is an extension of social life for today’s teens. In an article by Josh Farnsworth and Kerry Sullivan from the Worcester Telegram, one teen said,

"I have friends from different states, different towns and different schools, so it's easy to keep in touch with them through a common Web site…My best friend from kindergarten moved away, but now we're talking again on MySpace."

The article stated that teens use MySpace as an alternative to the telephone and face-to-face communication with friends from their schools.

"MySpace is one of the main ways of communicating outside of school…” said Patrick I. Watson, 18, of Worcester.”It is the place where after-school gossip takes place. (Farnsworth 2)"

MySpace also allows people to gain and sustain “weak ties” with acquaintances that would have otherwise faded away (Thompson 5).

Although MySpace has many positive effects on social development, we have all seen news reports about its dangers. In her article “Social Networking, Part 2; a Toolkit for Teachers”, Nancy Willard states three of her main concerns: teens making bad choices, parents not paying attention, and dangerous adults lurking on MySpace.

 Teens are using these sites to explore their personal identities and to establish "social status." … these activities encourage the presentation of provocative, intimate information that can cross the lines of safety and appropriateness…Parents may not have sufficient knowledge and technical skills… may have misplaced reliance on "parental controls" or filtering software…may have the notion that they should respect their teen's online privacy and fail to understand that these are public places …(and) Dangerous adults are attracted…Including sexual predators, child pornographers, hate group recruiters, and others(Willard 1).

 MySpace has taken steps to keep users safe including “hiring Hemanshu Nigam, former director of Consumer Security Outreach and Child Safe Computing at Microsoft (and) giving visitors the ability to report inappropriate content (Farnsworth 1).” Ultimately though, it is up to teens to decide what information to post and who to be friends with.

Larry Rosen suggests that all parents create a MySpace page of their own, pay attention to and ask what their children are doing online, set limits, and keep computers out of the bedroom. A research study he completed of 267 parents shows at least one-third of parents were not sure if their child is giving out any personal information. 43% of parents were not sure how many days per week their child was on MySpace, 39% thought their child was on 5-7 days a week when in reality, 70% of the children were on MySpace 5-7 days. 16% were worried about sexual predators. 38% had never asked to see or talked with their children about their MySpace use. Only one-third of the parents actually checked their teen’s MySpace page regularly, while more than 70% of the adolescents said they would feel comfortable having their parents look at their MySpace page.

17% of parents had created a page and those that did were more likely to have seen their teen’s MySpace page and pictures, looked often, and were more likely to know how many days their teen was on MySpace They were also less concerned about sexual predators on MySpace and were surer about whether their teen had given out personal information. Overall, parents who had a MySpace felt that it was a positive social tool that allowed kids to keep in touch and say things that they may be too shy to say in person. One parent who did not have MySpace said, “I don't know much about it other than the horror stories I've seen in the news about sexual predators (Rosen, Memo to All 1-5).”

I think that Larry Rosen sums it up well, “It is not the medium that is the problem. Teens need and crave limits and boundaries that parents are not supplying (Rosen 6).” I agree with his suggestions and these are some of the same suggestions I have made to my dad and sister. It is important though that parents handle the subject of MySpace in the right way. Teens enjoy using the site and it is a big part of their life so it is important for parents and teens to come to some common ground. Teens should be responsible in what they post and do online, but it is up to parents to teach them right from wrong. One suggestion I would make to teens is to only be friends with people you know, never post your full name, date of birth, or address, and to keep your parents informed of your activities on MySpace. I always tell my sister to remember that the internet is a public place and it is just like broadcasting your life on every channel on television, all day, every day.