Social Networking

Just for a Just how well do you recall your childhood? Do you remember the total freedom? You could shamelessly put your underwear on your head and strut around your house as a power ranger. Your classes in school included “coloring’ and �nap time’. You were ignorant and you were happy. There was a dark side to childhood however, and it served as a constant taint on the most important aspect of our lives: our social lives. For too long we actually had to be face to face with a person to be �socializing’ with them. Now we are older, we are wiser, and we have a much more reasonable alternative – social networking sites.

I must admit my introduction to the social networking scene came late in life. Throughout middle school and much of high school I was perfectly happy using the Internet only as an information-gathering tool, perhaps connecting to friends once in a while to play video games. But then, one fateful day, I received an amazing email.

”You have a new friend request!”

I was intrigued. I clicked the link and was instantly transported to a world that was so strange, yet familiar. It was like real life, only better. It was MySpace. The girl who sent me the invite, NaDiA-x-LoVe, seemed like a great gal. In her “about me” blurb, she said “Hey, people call my nickname �Hot Stuff’. My friends I love and they tell me i rock. I don’t know about that, but I guess they know best right. Anyway, I think I rock maybe you can know me and know too”. Oh Nadia, you tease me with your silken tongue, of course I’ll be your friend.

MySpace was like a giant house with millions of rooms. Each one belonged to one person who got to decorate the place, usually with pictures of themselves or their cats. Many a teenage girl has perfected the art of pouting their lips and taking a picture at arms length. The house even had its own creepy stalker, who seemed to be everywhere at once. His name was Tom. I think he must have been very lonely, since he added himself to everyones friend list.

Tom’s house was cool for a while, but eventually I got a little tired. First I got tired of all the girls telling each other to live longer, love deeper and laugh harder. Then I got tired of hearing different songs in every single room of the house. I really got sick of all the ugly. One of the down sides to having everyone decorate their own room is that some people just don’t realize that pink text on a pink background is not 100% readable. I really just wanted a place where I could go hang out with sophisticated people and talk about sophisticated things.

The answer came to me one day when, at a friend’s house, I logged on to MySpace.