MySpace.com: Bringing out the Best and Worst of the Internet

We all know that Myspace is the most famous (or infamous) of all the so-called social networking web sites, but what do you really know about them other than that fact that your children have MySpace sites?

MySpace is a social networking Web site. (It gained so much popularity that Fox Interactive Media bought the site for $580 million last summer.) MySpace and social networking sites like it offer thriving communities where young people post their personal profiles including email addresses, links to personal web sites and cell phone numbers. They can also engage in countless hours of chatting, photo and file sharing. For professionals, MySpace offers a great opportunity market their trades and services.

How it works: You join up for free, then create your profile, or “Space”. Your space will typically include your personal or business “bio”, plus one or more photos of yourself. As friends are invited to visit your space, the “social networking” begins. The network builds as more and more friends join up to your space. People you don’t even know will discover your space, find it intriguing, and ask to be invited. Real time communication enhances the social networking aspect, and you and the friends begin chatting via Instant Messaging.

Sounds fairly harmless at the first look, however when you dig into the trenches of social networking Web sites, you’ll find The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good:
As mentioned above, MySpace is a good tool for marketing your talents. Musicians can be very successful utilizing MySpace by sharing their music to the world.

The Bad:
One of the unforeseen (uncontrolled and unmonitored) aspects of MySpace is that one of your so called “friends” may email you and direct you to what you think is their personal web site. In some cases this is true, but in other instances, you will be directed to porn sites, and various Spyware programs will automatically load onto your computer. So now your computer is hacked, and it costs money to fix these hacks. MySpace provides a very rich “marketing” environment for devious industries to “harvest” potential consumers and fool them into clicking to their websites.

The Ugly:
In my opinion, this is the worst case scenario. MySpace and other social sites also have become hangouts for child predators, child pornographers, and other lowlifes.
“Lurkers” find your site, ask to be invited as a friend of your space, then once the communication channel is open, they’ll use various psychological and emotional tactics to lure their prey.
I do not advocate the use of MySpace.com. The fact is MySpace is a reality; there are 80 million users of MySpace, and that offers huge opportunities for those who are opportunistic, good, bad, and ugly. Be vigilant!