MySpace as 'alternate reality'

Parents of MySpace bloggers consider this: One way to think of the site is as a cross between a videogame and a shopping mall. Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal suggests that the Internet is becoming one of those immersive, massively multiplayer alternate-reality games, and he uses MySpace.com as an example. Because at MySpace, he writes, "tens of thousands of young people spend many hours a day wandering around as if in a suburban shopping mall, looking for friends, expressing opinions, acquiring trends and, in general, leading a life that at times seems to have more reality to it than the life they lead when they log off." Lee's fairly disinterested take on MySpace is revealing. It's first and foremost a social-networking site, so the participants are "stop the presses - interested in sex and attractive sexual partners," have "exhibitionist tendencies, though in a PG sort of way," rarely read (books, etc.), and mostly like to "chill." The male-to-female ratio "seems three or four to one," which means female participants get a lot of attention. Lee also says "much of MySpace is open for all to see," which means kids aren't paying much attention to protecting their privacy. The site *says* under-16s aren't allowed, but I hear from a lot of parents of under-16s who are blogging at MySpace - e.g., see "A [12-year-old's] dad on kids' blogs" and "Kids: Budding online spin doctors"). Here, too, is a CommonSenseMedia editorial on MySpace, which got 15.5 million unique visitors in May, according to MarketWatch.