Yours, Mine, or OurSpace?
Yours, Mine, or OurSpace?
It’s 11 o'clock on a Thursday morning, and many teenagers in Northwest Bakersfield are just waking up. Ah, yes... summer vacation, devoid of alarm clocks, paper assignments, studying... and parents.
As many Northwest families know, activities with younger children, work, sporting events, or any number of everyday responsibilities remove parents from the home environment for long hours, leaving sluggish teenagers alone for much of summer break.
With hours of free time and the need to socialize in a network of other teens, local students are turning to the popular website MySpace.com to combat summer boredom.
And they think that nobody knows.
Recently, I was struck with the realization that local teenagers using MySpace seem to be under the impression that they have joined a private club, where the only membership requirements are access to the Internet and an ID card that reads: “Under the age of 21.”
Teens unabashedly post revealing pictures and comments on pages that are easily accessed by anyone with a computer, not realizing (or, more likely, not caring) that teachers, administrators, college recruiters, potential employers and parents have the same access to their comments as their friends do.
As many Northwest families know, activities with younger children, work, sporting events, or any number of everyday responsibilities remove parents from the home environment for long hours, leaving sluggish teenagers alone for much of summer break.
With hours of free time and the need to socialize in a network of other teens, local students are turning to the popular website MySpace.com to combat summer boredom.
And they think that nobody knows.
Recently, I was struck with the realization that local teenagers using MySpace seem to be under the impression that they have joined a private club, where the only membership requirements are access to the Internet and an ID card that reads: “Under the age of 21.”
Teens unabashedly post revealing pictures and comments on pages that are easily accessed by anyone with a computer, not realizing (or, more likely, not caring) that teachers, administrators, college recruiters, potential employers and parents have the same access to their comments as their friends do.
It’s like a colossal network of note passing, with one exception: the entire world is invited to read the teens’ most private (yet public) musings.
Some teens chafe against the invasion of their privacy, claiming that MySpace is their space, where adults shouldn’t tread.
What privacy? According to Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press, MySpace reports 86 million users, with only 25 percent of those members registered as teenagers. If another 25 percent are teens lying about their ages, the remaining 43 million users are adults accessing the social Web site.
Some teens chafe against the invasion of their privacy, claiming that MySpace is their space, where adults shouldn’t tread.
What privacy? According to Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press, MySpace reports 86 million users, with only 25 percent of those members registered as teenagers. If another 25 percent are teens lying about their ages, the remaining 43 million users are adults accessing the social Web site.
So, whose MySpace is it, anyway?
Northwest mom Mandi Dickey maintains a MySpace account to keep in touch with friends and family. She also posts recent pictures of her three sons, the eldest of whom attends Centennial High School and has his own MySpace page.
When asked if she invades her son’s “space,” she says that she and her husband check their son’s public messages every few days.
“I want to see if there’s anything I disapprove of,” she says. “I’ve gone through and clicked on his friends to see what’s up.”
She hasn’t stopped there. From one friend to the next, she clicks on MySpace pages out of curiosity, to see new pictures or just to see what their pages are about.
“You almost get sucked into it because you see someone you know, then click on someone else, and the next thing you know, you are viewing a page and you don’t know how you got there,” Dickey admits.
Dickey said that on one occasion she noticed an inappropriate picture of a friend’s teenager posted on the online forum and decided to contact the parent.
“I would want my friend to tell me if she saw something [bad] on my son’s MySpace,” she added.
That picture was gone within the hour.
Dickey’s son, Josh, originally created her MySpace page, and then later considered her presence online as an invasion of his privacy.
She doesn’t buy his argument.
“You don’t put your life story on the Internet if you care [about privacy]. Keep your diary locked in your room if that’s what you want,” she responded.
What began as a Web site for fledgling musicians to connect with their fans has morphed into an online teenage diary, wherein kids post their most private escapades and conversations for public (if not parental) consumption.
Katelyn Steele, a Liberty High School junior, freely posts on her MySpace page, knowing that her parents are watching.
Steele’s family has a set of Internet regulations that fall beneath the umbrella of ‘House Rules’ she must follow if she wants to keep using the site.
“We have a MySpace policy at my house. I give my mom my password and email. She checks it, and it doesn’t bother me. And only people we know are allowed to be our friends,” she says.
If Steele limits what she says online, though, she says it’s for her own protection.
“There are Internet freaks,” she says.
Perhaps Steele’s awareness of Internet predators and her subsequent policing of her own postings will protect her after high school, too.
According to Alan Finder in his N.Y. Times article, "Job applicants may be hurt by online remarks," college and graduate students risk being spied-on as often as their younger counterparts.
“Recruiters are looking up applicants on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Xanga and Friendster, where students often post risqué photographs and provocative comments about drinking, drug use and sexual exploits,” claims Finder.
“Viewed by corporate recruiters or admissions officials at graduate and professional schools, such pages can make students look immature and unprofessional, at best,” he wrote in the article.
In other words, casual comments made thoughtlessly on MySpace could alter one's future.
You can tell a lot about a person from the layout of a MySpace page.
Northwest mom Mandi Dickey maintains a MySpace account to keep in touch with friends and family. She also posts recent pictures of her three sons, the eldest of whom attends Centennial High School and has his own MySpace page.
When asked if she invades her son’s “space,” she says that she and her husband check their son’s public messages every few days.
“I want to see if there’s anything I disapprove of,” she says. “I’ve gone through and clicked on his friends to see what’s up.”
She hasn’t stopped there. From one friend to the next, she clicks on MySpace pages out of curiosity, to see new pictures or just to see what their pages are about.
“You almost get sucked into it because you see someone you know, then click on someone else, and the next thing you know, you are viewing a page and you don’t know how you got there,” Dickey admits.
Dickey said that on one occasion she noticed an inappropriate picture of a friend’s teenager posted on the online forum and decided to contact the parent.
“I would want my friend to tell me if she saw something [bad] on my son’s MySpace,” she added.
That picture was gone within the hour.
Dickey’s son, Josh, originally created her MySpace page, and then later considered her presence online as an invasion of his privacy.
She doesn’t buy his argument.
“You don’t put your life story on the Internet if you care [about privacy]. Keep your diary locked in your room if that’s what you want,” she responded.
What began as a Web site for fledgling musicians to connect with their fans has morphed into an online teenage diary, wherein kids post their most private escapades and conversations for public (if not parental) consumption.
Katelyn Steele, a Liberty High School junior, freely posts on her MySpace page, knowing that her parents are watching.
Steele’s family has a set of Internet regulations that fall beneath the umbrella of ‘House Rules’ she must follow if she wants to keep using the site.
“We have a MySpace policy at my house. I give my mom my password and email. She checks it, and it doesn’t bother me. And only people we know are allowed to be our friends,” she says.
If Steele limits what she says online, though, she says it’s for her own protection.
“There are Internet freaks,” she says.
Perhaps Steele’s awareness of Internet predators and her subsequent policing of her own postings will protect her after high school, too.
According to Alan Finder in his N.Y. Times article, "Job applicants may be hurt by online remarks," college and graduate students risk being spied-on as often as their younger counterparts.
“Recruiters are looking up applicants on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Xanga and Friendster, where students often post risqué photographs and provocative comments about drinking, drug use and sexual exploits,” claims Finder.
“Viewed by corporate recruiters or admissions officials at graduate and professional schools, such pages can make students look immature and unprofessional, at best,” he wrote in the article.
In other words, casual comments made thoughtlessly on MySpace could alter one's future.
You can tell a lot about a person from the layout of a MySpace page.
Patriotic, feminine, sporty or gothic, whether the user likes to party or pray, MySpace layouts tend to reflect user personalities as much as the clothes they wear.
To parents and recruiters alike, this is valuable information.
If you’re looking to date my daughter, for instance, you had better expect that her father will be searching your MySpace for what university recruiters call “red flags” — something questionable about your lifestyle or values.
Kristine Clerico, a Northwest mom, monitors MySpace to see what kids are saying but warns that if a parent makes her presence too obvious, the kids won’t be themselves.
“If they know you’re monitoring, they are going to hide things,” she says.
To parents and recruiters alike, this is valuable information.
If you’re looking to date my daughter, for instance, you had better expect that her father will be searching your MySpace for what university recruiters call “red flags” — something questionable about your lifestyle or values.
Kristine Clerico, a Northwest mom, monitors MySpace to see what kids are saying but warns that if a parent makes her presence too obvious, the kids won’t be themselves.
“If they know you’re monitoring, they are going to hide things,” she says.
Clerico says she doesn’t get online as often as she should, but that her Centennial students don’t give her much call for concern.
“I do learn who’s grounded and who has been out drinking, though,” she added.
“I do learn who’s grounded and who has been out drinking, though,” she added.
Despite the number of adult users, teens insist that MySpace is their space, not our space and that parents don’t have a place there at all.
To the contrary, MySpace is indeed the space of anyone with Internet access.
To the contrary, MySpace is indeed the space of anyone with Internet access.
Protecting your teen from the dangers of the site, though, is surprisingly easy and sounds a lot like advice you gave your toddlers: don’t speak to strangers, don’t get in a car (or on an airplane) with a stranger, don’t reveal identifying information, and tell your parents if something doesn’t seem right.
And if you have college students, a word of warning about their online behavior might forestall a recruiting nightmare when they’re applying to graduate school or are looking to get their first real job.
Surprise! A little bit of parental supervision, along with interest in what kids do with their free time, and the dangers of MySpace rapidly diminish.
And if you have college students, a word of warning about their online behavior might forestall a recruiting nightmare when they’re applying to graduate school or are looking to get their first real job.
Surprise! A little bit of parental supervision, along with interest in what kids do with their free time, and the dangers of MySpace rapidly diminish.
And before long, TheirSpace turns to OurSpace, and we can have OneSpace after all.
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