The Cult of MySpace

I have a love/hate relationship with MySpace. Everyone's on it. It's hip. It's cool. It gives you a chance to network, to meet other people with similar interests, to reconnect with people you've lost touch with, to maintain casual contact with former classmates and acquaintances, to find cool music, to preview the latest movies. A friend of mine is even dating a guy who contacted her through her MySpace page. All reasons, I guess, to sign up. Except... In a way, MySpace seems like just another way of being disconnected from people. Instead of taking time to write a letter (remember those?) or sending someone an email or even a phone call, now all you have to do is leave a brief, amusing (it HAS to be funny since it'll be immortalized for all the world to see) comment on someone's MySpace page. And people are obsessed with MySpace, checking their page several times a day, collecting "Friends" like baseball cards, and routinely customizing their page. All this has made me dig in my heels about joining the cult known as MySpace. First of all, I don't need to "corral" my friends into one place. It's almost like people can't keep track of who their friends are. I also don't like the way it feels like bragging. "Rebekah Has 472 Friends." How many do YOU have? And, seriously, 472? Is the guy who started MySpace REALLY your friend or the band you saw on Friday night? Plus it's the laziest way of maintaining friendships. It's almost as annoying as people who send out Christmas cards, and all you get is a handwritten "Merry Christmas" with their name underneath when you haven't heard from this person all year. Besides, if 12 year olds are on MySpace, how cool is it really?