I’m going to share an addiction I have had for about 9 days now. Actually I’m not sure if this is something I should be sharing with the world but here it goes anyway (I guess the fact that I have links on my site is a dead give away and I should just come clean anyway). Without laying down all of the rationalization and excuses first, I’m just going to admit that I now have a MySpace page. Yes! Yes! Yes! I know. Similar to my weakness when it came to resisting the social pressures to begin those crack-like Harry Potter books, I gave into the craze that was started by a dorky guy named Tom.

I know this only because when you register for your account the first “friend” that pops up to greet you is of course “Tom” (Tom Anderson founded the site along with CEO Chris DeWolfe). Let me back up a few steps to explain the concept of this online addiction I’ve acquired.

MySpace is setup to be a social website…a community of surfers coming together under the pretenses of networking. The site is an opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. But it has quickly gained a bad rap because of its misuses by predominantly teen….well let’s just keep it real… it has been used for online flirtation and alternative commercial gains by all ages. This is not the most descriptive explanation of its reputation among critics, but for the sake of sharing my personal experiences I’ll just stick to how I have come to use the site.

My lovely wife published her own page about a year ago when she realized that many of the people she either knew back home or was beginning to meet here in Denver encouraged her to “hit [them] up” on MySpace. Of course not really being familiar with how to connect this way, Felicia jumped out into the cyber abyss that has become a cultural phenomenon. I mocked her use of the site of course and opted not to stoop to such childish, circa 1994, and the AOL era ways.

Low and behold, as I have been trying to spread the word about my new found ambitions as a writer and MySpace has always made its way into conversations. I finally gave into temptation when I was networking with some spoken word artists that each had their own page. With a new found boldness I proclaimed, “Yeah we can do that, I’ll hit you up on MySpace”. Ouch! Those words may have been the final line of the eulogy for what over the next week would become my former self. From finding the right theme for my page to scouring the site for old friends, sadly, I have spent countless hours in awe of the sheer reach of MySpace.

There are people across the globe with MySpace pages. In our own country you can pretty much count on any actor or celebrity to have their own page (albeit one probably managed by someone else). Musicians provide recently released songs that can easily be downloaded or added to your “profile” so that when someone clicks your page, the rhythm and lyrics resound through their speakers. In fact jumping from page to page can be like listening to an impatient frat house DJ quick on the CD changer’s next button.

Web designers are cashing in on commercial opportunities to provide free photo slideshows and design codes in hopes that users will pay for other products. Grammy nominated artists like Kanye West have mentioned MySpace in song lyrics and even politicians like Barack Obama have joined the legions in an effort to solicit more votes. Popularity in this cyber world can pay big dividends. Bad Boy artists Cassie has mentioned in magazine interviews that it was in part her fans on MySpace that help propel her to stardom (okay, so she has a long way to go still, but she is from Connecticut).

Getting back to my addiction… (I know I promised not to rationalize my decision too much but hey I had to provide the background for my decision) I am slowly coming out of the MySpace newbie comma. I will share that I have communicated with former college roommates, high school classmates and even family members I otherwise wouldn’t get a chance to hear from.

I won’t mock you if you tell me down the road that you too have fallen victim. But do yourself a favor if you are looking to network…Hit Me Up MySpace.

After Thoughts:

Thinking about the invention of MySpace, I couldn’t help but think about the rise and fall of niche sites catering to African Americans and Latinos. BlackPlanet.com and Migente.com were well known entities created by Omar Wasaw. Omar was and still is an ingenuious young talent (who I was fortunate enough to meet) that anticipated the need for such web communities. The strength of his concepts, however, became their eventual downfall. While the sites mentioned above (one could make the case for AOL’s Blackpages as well) attracted so many members because of their ability to link folks with common interests centered around, ethnicity and culture, they failed to generate the universal appeal that would be so greatly underestimated on the web.

I believe there is still a need for a niche web presence, however. After all, there really isn’t a way for MySpace to search for…let’s say…all of the Puerto Rican members in Denver. While this could easily be twisted by right wing loyalists itching to perpetuate a false sense of “color blindness” (yes, I said color blindness), I hold fast that there is value to be gained in connecting with like minded and culturally familiar people.

Not being a web engineer or an expert in this field I would have to defer when conceptualizing an answer. My initial response would be to implement more search filters into MySpace. As a member you can currently search by name, email, school etc. If there were ways to drill down a bit further, perhaps we could be better positioned to use the site as a tool for celebrating the diversity of our nation.