February 22, 2006

I'm giving a presentation next month to attendees of the Images of Youth 2006: New Directions in Media Literacy & Teen Health Conference. It'll be held on March 20-21, 2006 at the University of Washington.

The conference helps adults who work with teens and youth understand "media literacy."  I'm giving a presentation on blogging, social networks (like MySpace) and the like.  I'm charged with helping make sense of the online universe - and what is available out there - for attendees.

As such, I signed up for a MySpace account today. 

It may seem ridiculous for a 48 year old to set up an account there, but there's no substitute for an actual experience. 

And within seconds of typing my name in and uploading my photo, the most amazing thing happened: suddenly, I had a "friend." 

His name is Tom, he's single, white, 30 years old and lives in California.  He shared his favorite music with me (a range of those I recognized and didn't), his favorite movies (c'mon, can someone love Gladiator, Titanic AND the Sound of Music?) and authors.  

He was there to help me negotiate through MySpace if I had any questions.  I poked around through some of Tom's 57,858,014 friends, many of whom were online at the same time I was - in the middle of a school day.  All were obviously way younger than I, many of them had photos of themselves in interesting poses, and they were all sending Tom their thoughts. 

No wonder kids are productive in MySpace immediately.  It's an amazing (and pretty smart) way to 'enter' into a network.  The power of a friend - with a face, movie "preferences" (just like mine!), and plenty of other friends to meet immediately, offering help - right there.

I'm fascinated - and frankly just a little disturbed - at how easy it is to make lots of (virtual) friends online.

You can bet I'm going to recommend every attendee at the conference go out and try it for themselves.  It's an amazing look at the world through much younger eyes. 

My bet is, Tom will help them through it.

Posted by at February 22, 2006

Comments

Amanda Freind email - amanda.prblogs.org

Ah MySpace. If Facebook wasn't enough to distract young people, MySpace definitely fills that gap. And MySpace allows more than just college and high-schoolers join.

However, as much as I despise Facebook and MySpace (Facebook literally can take up an hour of good work time; I wish I'd never joined) I have realized how prominent it has become in our young culture.

That being said, MySpace (and others) are incredible networking tools. I can look up someone I went to elementary school with and then search through their friends to see if I know anyone else. You can connect with people who share similar interests, take your same classes and those who knows your cousin's best friend's sister.

Facebook is a great advertising tool too! You can advertise whatever you want on the network for only about $17/2 weeks. Now, there is a huge audience right at your fingertips.

However, these social networking tools have their downfall. Any random Joe can look you up, think you're pretty and ask you to be his friend. Unknowing teens, in an effort to be "virtually" popular, accept. And boom, you have some random guy finding out all kinds of information about you. It's a little disturbing how easy it is to make friends online.

However, understanding MySpace and Facebook is becoming essential to those who deal with youth generations. It is the newest way to meet friends and get together. I hope the conference goes well!

Sherri email - bumpesc.prblogs.org

Joining MySpace was definitely an appropriate decision in order to gain insight through the eyes of young people. Many people involved with MySpace are also with Facebook. With all the negative, there is also the positive which include valuable contacts. You can reach classmates for assignmnets and reach old friends. Personally, I'm not apart of MySpace, but I am apart of facebook. It's definitely addictively. You can easily get caught up in sending and reading messages, writing on people's wall and reading other people's walls and profiles. But what I do like about Facebook is that there are security settings. You can decide who you want to view your information. If someone is bothering you, you can easily "block" them. With so many people apart of these social networks, advertisers are enjoying and benefiting from all the exposure. It's quite an easy way to target a particular audience. I'm sure your recent involvement with MySpace will provide you with much to talk about during your presentation. Good Luck!

Janet email - www.marqui.com/blog

I appreciate the insights you both have given me into these - I'm facinated by who's advertising there... it's amazing it's so inexpensive.

I'll post about the presentation next week... thanks for the good wishes.

BTW, there are now more than 63 billion members - as of March 17 - that's phenomenal growth.

TrackBack Link