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by Mia Gwynn with Benjamin Tertin

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MySpace Personality Creation Consumes Lives

MBC senior Daniel Bryant logs onto MySpace.com, checking to see if any of his 2,225 friends posted a comment. --Benjamin Tertin, photo

The most popular social networking empire on the Web, MySpace.com, boasts a 115-million-person (not only geek-minded) membership that increases every second.

The Web site, launched in 2003, now has a population that would make it the 11th largest country in the world.

MySpace is the second most visited Web site, only one place behind Yahoo! in pageviews per day.

Multnomah Bible College senior Daniel Bryant created his own MySpace profile in October 2005. As a musician, he said he joined hoping to introduce other members to his music, but personalizing his profile consumed time beyond a simple point and click.

"When I first started, I was probably spending three or four hours a day [on MySpace]," Bryant said. "I got out of classes and checked my MySpace profile...I generally left my homework until later."

Time consumption is only one issue resulting from the MySpace explosion. Sexual predation on the site, exposure of pornography to minors and a decline in "real" relationships among users have become debate topics in the media, church and home.

Dr. Larry Rosen, psychology professor at California State University and author of "Technostress: Coping with Technology," surveyed more than 1,500 MySpace users and 250 parents from May to June, 2006.

In a June 2006 press release, Dr. Rosen said, "Only 7 percent of those teens interviewed were ever approached by anyone with a sexual intent." He did not research users' exposure to pornographic material.

Dr. Rosen said teens spend an average of 15 hours per week on MySpace, and one in three admits MySpace activity negatively affects schoolwork and family life.

Still, Dr. Rosen said, people form valuable relationships and find emotional support lacking in their immediate circles.

Bryant found Dr. Rosen's statement to be true. He said: "In a normal relationship, people wouldn't tell you half the stuff they put up about themselves on MySpace. It's a personal counseling session; it's easier to tell a perfect stranger your deepest pains or joys than it is your best friend."

Multnomah theology professor Dr. Brad Harper said: "[MySpace] is just another contributor to making the world a global village. So now a young person's communication group is not simply his neighborhood or his school or his church -- it's the whole world. I think it's fascinating."

Commenting on possible dangers accompanying Internet social networks, Dr. Harper said, "We're seeing a lot more damage to young people in terms of their sexuality, and they're connecting with things that aren't healthy."

The problem, he said, is not MySpace or the Internet. "Pornography, for example, used to be incredibly hard to be exposed to; now it's just point and click.

"Things like the Internet and MySpace only accelerate pre-existing risks for danger...they don't create new dangers," Dr.Harper said.

Bryant said, "Lingerie ads and ads for 'sexy singles' pop up all the time after you log on." He said unintentional exposure to explicit content requires no additional effort and is "basically unavoidable."

Originally, MySpace required users to be 18 years old, then 16 and now 14. "And," Bryant said, "anyone younger [than 14] just has to lie about his age to get on."

MySpace statistics show the majority of users are ages 14 to 24, and in spite of dangers attached to MySpace participation, millions of people log on to connect with friends and build an on-line identity.

Danah Boyd, social media researcher and doctoral student at Berkeley, spoke about MySpace identity production to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on Feb. 19, 2006.

In a transcript of her speech, Ms. Boyd said, "[MySpace] profiles are digital bodies, public displays of identity where people can explore impression management.

"Because the digital world requires people to write themselves into being, profiles provide an opportunity to craft the intended expression through language, imagery and media. The goal is to look cool and receive peer validation."

Bryant said that the comments other users post is the sweet part of MySpace. He said: "When you scroll down and there is [a comment] there, it's exciting. When there isn't anything, it's kind of a letdown."

Because Bryant created his MySpace profile to introduce more people to his music, he said maintaining relationships with everyone on his friends list is not a priority. He has 2,225 MySpace friends and has personally met few of them.

Dr. Paul Metzger, Multnomah seminary theology professor, said he originally questioned the quality of on-line interaction.

He said that over time his colleagues and friends have helped him recognize some highly valuable communication benefits of social networking Web sites such as MySpace.

"Those things can enhance," he said, "but I would never want them to become foundational.

"We have to be discerning. There needs to be an actual lived encounter [between people]. MySpace is an invasion of space because it's a negation of space."

Bryant said he is no longer infatuated with MySpace. Instead of spending three to four hours per day, he said he now spends one hour per day updating his profile.

He said he will continue using MySpace to market his music, and he will always be drawn to the daily comments, personal surveys and his 2,225 friends, the majority of whom know him only as a voice singing on their computers.

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