MySpace goes mainstream
This edition of 'Seriously Speaking' investigates media bias towards MySpace
Ariel Carmona
Issue date: 4/18/06 Section: Opinion
MySpace.com, the website for friends, has gone mainstream. Since last we featured the social networking website in a write up in the Mountaineer last spring, the website has grown in popularity, been bought out by a corporate entity and has even put out a music CD.
Not every reaction to the website has been a positive one, especially amidst recent revelations that a Homeland Security official was arrested in a child sex sting. Access to MySpace has already been restricted in a lot of the computer labs on campus and the library, and there has been a recent outcry against it from conservative parents and a Walnut based newspaper publisher, mostly over minors using the website without supervision. What I find most disturbing is that media outlets have been quick to report on the negative aspects associated with the site without giving the other side of the story.
Last week, a Los Angeles Times column one article related a reporter's experiences using the site to watch over the cyber interactions of her 13-year old daughter. At first I was leery of reading the piece, fearing it would be another condemnation of the website, adding to the growing din over the internet's influences on the morals of its users, but I was surprised to read a fair, objective account of a parent's sometimes strained relationship with her daughter and how sharing a common interest on the web has brought them closer together.
The writer started out by saying she was shocked to discover what her friends were up to on the site, which would lead one to believe she was going to report on the most unsavory aspects of the site: provocative profiles where people post almost pornographic photos on a routine basis, foul language commonly used on pages and other factors which would upset parents. However, the story went on to cite how sharing MySpace with her daughter actually allowed the reporter a glimpse of her daughter's adolescent world and in some instances helped to make them closer.
Not every reaction to the website has been a positive one, especially amidst recent revelations that a Homeland Security official was arrested in a child sex sting. Access to MySpace has already been restricted in a lot of the computer labs on campus and the library, and there has been a recent outcry against it from conservative parents and a Walnut based newspaper publisher, mostly over minors using the website without supervision. What I find most disturbing is that media outlets have been quick to report on the negative aspects associated with the site without giving the other side of the story.
Last week, a Los Angeles Times column one article related a reporter's experiences using the site to watch over the cyber interactions of her 13-year old daughter. At first I was leery of reading the piece, fearing it would be another condemnation of the website, adding to the growing din over the internet's influences on the morals of its users, but I was surprised to read a fair, objective account of a parent's sometimes strained relationship with her daughter and how sharing a common interest on the web has brought them closer together.
The writer started out by saying she was shocked to discover what her friends were up to on the site, which would lead one to believe she was going to report on the most unsavory aspects of the site: provocative profiles where people post almost pornographic photos on a routine basis, foul language commonly used on pages and other factors which would upset parents. However, the story went on to cite how sharing MySpace with her daughter actually allowed the reporter a glimpse of her daughter's adolescent world and in some instances helped to make them closer.