So, I kind of don't know where to begin. The MySpace Effect and social networking in general are two subjects I try to follow as best as I can. As many of my friends know, I all ways like to prod into peoples minds for their thoughts on the two. First I'm going to explain the people I feel who aren't affected by the "wrongs" of social networking, then go into the people who are, what draws them in, and why it's going in a weird direction for them. After that I'll get to the task.

Two quick things I'd like to shoot out is first, this will be sort of long, second, ask anyone you know, "what's wrong with MySpace?" Chances are all they'll be able to come up with is items like there's "drama" or "it looks like shit!" Ask the drama people to go into greater detail, most of the time they can't. The people who say it looks like shit, at one point in time, did site design. ALSO as far as my outlooks on all this stuff goes, these are MY VIEWS, if you feel I'm not correct, cool, comment, might change the way I think.

People who can deal with online communication and socializing.

You, me, most of the people part of SF0 (I'm sure) have been around computers and net access since the early to mid 90s. Social networking wasn't a coined term back that, in the age of BBSs, IRC, and email that wasn't checked once every 60 seconds. We all thought that communication was AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, while compared to the happenings of current day internet, back then was shit. Still, it was faster then walking to the park, going to a party, and picking up the phone. At this point I'd like to say we were all being spoon fed, allowed to grow with the technology, able to learn from what was around yesterday and use that knowledge to tackle the newer forms of communication hitting us the next day.

The net kids of the early and mid 90s grew up with this stuff, we've grown into it, evolved in a way that allows use to deal with the current forms of mass communication, socialization at the speed of light. We know when it'll benefit us, and we also know when to say stop, we know how to deal with 8 conversations going on at once while still being able to talk to someone standing next to you. The ability to deal with communication and information overload is a part of us now.

What draws the kids in.

I could go ON and ON about this, but I wont, because someone else has. And I can't find the link, awesome. Well then, here's the just of it. Kids need their space, parents rule the home, teachers rule schools, malls and parks are open only for a short time during the day. MySpace creates this "space" for kids, it's somewhere that parents can't really touch, it's a place for them. That's why a ton of kids get sucked in. Your friends are on there, you have to make an account to see half the content. It's just a big loop.

UPDATE 20060601: Thanks to Heather Mooflyfoof, I've been relinked to the paper I read that I wanted to link to in the What draws the kids in section. So here it is.

What keeps people stuck.

What I had said a few lines up comes into play here. Us early to mid 90s kids can deal. The mass of MySpace are people who are just getting introduced to the net, as in the past 5 years, can't. They were never spoon fed the slow BBS networks, they never grew up with it. For them it's like hitting a sort of system shock, they can't say no, they get stuck.

Is it helping any.

A friend of mine is about to get out of the army. After having a long discussion with his parents about thoughts on in subject of online communication, we all came to the conclusion that maybe it's not all fucked up. MySpace is his main form of networking with friends that are far away. Without it he'd be lost. So maybe it's not all bad?

Where is this all going.

Nicole had some good points on this. It sucks that the company FOX now has full access (owns) to any and all information on the MySpace network, all of the personal data people save is now all theirs. They could sell ideas, make millions off of it, market things directly to you, whatever they like. But that's all that sucks, in other words let the chips fall where they may. MySpace and social networking are now part of human evolution for a large portion of the world's society. It'll be interesting to see where all this is going to go, but I do feel better that I'm on the outside of it.

Rubin's MySpace account (for the love of god get to the task).

As anyone whom I know knows, my account there is only to get access to the site, to read journals of friends. If I have anything important I'd like to communicate, I'll get ahold of the person via email or through a messaging service, or just walk up to them. I also keep a public journal (which I think is something everyone should keep, public or private). So when I saw this task pop up, I thought it may be interesting to get peoples reactions if I just happened to expire via it.

The Task (finally).

I started to prepare my account mid May. I posted a few journal entries on MySpace stating fake failed attempts at choking my self with cotton balls, and asking if anyone wants my stuff as pretty soon I wont be needing anything worldly anymore. These are things that are totally out of character for me, especially the fact that I wouldn't be doing it all through MySpace, a service I've vocally dissed within.

The responses I got were not what I has expected at all. Some people showed valid concern for me, I felt like they had thrown all rational thought out the window by believing some of the ridicules stuff I was posting. Others requested a list of what I was getting rid of, falling for the I'M FAKING IT GUYS sarcasm but at the same time showing zero concern.

You can see screen shots of all my postings attached as images.

Staging a death.

I mixed some soy goop with ketchup and water, made for some ok looking blood. I grabbed a large knife from the kitchen, and a bunch of random pills (peptobismal, aspirin, some diarrhea meds laying around from a past roommate). I took all this into the bathroom, sat in the tub, and proceeded to take pictures of me cutting my arm with the fake blood everywhere and the pills sitting on the side of the tub. If you can't figure it by now, I wanted to make it look like I was ODing on some pills while poorly/wrongly cutting my arms, and spewing loads of bad looking fake blood, with the final goal of faking my own suicide. I was making the photos to be later posted on my account.

Once again copies of the never used photos at the bottom.

Wait, you just said never used photos, what gives?

Before I opted to put the pictures up and "end it all" I told some older coworkers about my plans, this was brought up during a discussion about someone dealing with their kid's addiction to MySpace. After explaining that I wanted to see the reaction from friends, one person asked me not to do it. He felt that the act of simply doing it may trigger someone else to see it as an acceptable act, and do it them self. I didn't see eye to eye with him on this, so he had a simple task for me, call a suicide hotline and ask how they feel about all this, which is what I did.

About 2 hours ago I spoke with Bruce who was part of 1800SUICIDE. I explained to him that I just wanted to get his thoughts on the subject. He had some of the same views as my coworker, he also threw this at me. If someone in a family commits suicide, the rest of the family is seven times more likely to do the same then compared to the rest of the public. He felt that even though I don't see any my friends as being prone to doing the same, it's not worth the chance of someone else coming across my profile, reading it, and feeling that it's ok to do so.

So I'm not going all the way.

What are you doing then?

I've just changed my account thing page. This is dead, there is nothing else left for me here, goodbye MySpace. Images at the bottom.

That's lame, you're lame, you shouldn't get any points, jack ass made me read all this shit.

Yea well. I've killed off a means of communication for some, learned a thing or two about human nature, and also stated my mind. All in all I think I've completed the task in my own way. Comment as you wish.