Wednesday, November 09, 2005

more like liespace...


I really really hate myspace.

Well, Becki, you say. Why are you still on it, silly pants?

Exactly, I would reply.

---

Let me (whimsically) make a list of the reason I bear such contempt for said myspace (and I will include the disclaimer that there are exceptions to every rule and that I'm a fan of blanket statements)

-On the internet (myspace, et al) one can make oneself anyone one wishes to be. This is NOT REAL. Yes, I'm sure that there are people on myspace that are everything they seem to be, but I believe that more often than not, this is NOT the case.

-When people message you on myspace (again, et al), it's generally NOT because they feel like you are a quality person who, upon involvement with them, would enrich their life beyond measure for the rest of your respective lives. It's because they think you are attractive and/or willing to participate in various activities with them. I just had a discussion with my friend Eric (reference #1 - CHECK!) at work about how this type of interaction is no different than the reasons someone might approach another someone in a social setting - bar, club, cocktail party, golf tournament, etc. - and why is it worse when it's online? I replied that I just get an uneasy feeling about meeting people online and knowing only an interpretation of themselves BY themselves (which is certainly credible). At least when someone approaches you in person, they know nothing except how you look right now. Attraction is important, but at least there isn't this "likely to be false" impression of your character floating around. There's just nothing. I don't really like being approached by people I don't know anyway, so maybe I'm not a good judge of this.

-I don't like being able to keep tabs on people. Who's posting on whose page (which is CLEARLY an indication of who a person's dearest friends are), who's in a relationship, and who's lots of other things. I don't know. I tend to like to look and see who's posting on other people's pages, and who's in whose top 8, and maybe I don't like that about myself.

-I also don't like the self glorification that permeates everything myspace is. Look at this amazing new post I just wrote, along with this amazingly beautiful picture of myself. Please comment on it so I can feel justified as a person. And again, I'm guilty of having put pictures of myself that I feel are attractive on there, and again, maybe I don't like that about myself.
---


I truly don't use myspace as a dating tool, because meeting new people with the preliminary expectation of romantic interest in real life makes me nervous anyway, let alone someone who I've never met and don't know anything about on the internet. I think it's ridiculous. I know sometimes it happens, but see: I think it's ridiculous.

I think myspace is good because I can keep in touch with people that live far away, but really I just need to exchange emails and phone numbers with these people, and the people who are more than just a number on my friends list will keep in contact. Sorry about the rant, but I've been feeling convicted (insert Christian jargon, exhibit A) about it, and with every passing day I get closer and closer to deleting my account. Oh what a glorious day it will be! I really feel like a weight will have been lifted.

I don't know why I don't just do it now. Sucka.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think the question is why did it take you so long to realize these facts, which have always been the purest essence of myspace

- Icon

becki said...

Reveal yourself, Anonymous commenter!!

Anonymous said...

anonymity is one of the lovely things about the interweb.

- Icon

Anonymous said...

there, there ms. rabbits. it will all turn out in the end. even now, i sense your absence on the wretched myspace. there's a you-shaped void on my short friend list.