I have both a MySpace page and a Facebook page. I have had a MySpace page since I was in High School. I made my page when MySpace was first becoming popular, because all my friends had one. Now, I still use my page, but it is mainly so I can keep in touch with my friends and family. My page is pretty straightforward, it has basic information about me such as my name, hometown, age, and the school I attend as well as information about the things that I like and dislike. I also have pictures of myself and my son on my page. I only made a Facebook page during the summer before I started my freshman year of college, because it allowed me to meet new people who would be attending college with me at OSU. , However, I have found that now I don’t use my Facebook page very often. It has very little personal information aside from my name, school, and birthday, and a few pictures.
All of the information that I post on my both pages is true. In Chapter 3, Wood and Smith discuss all about self-presentation online and how many people may play roles, distort information, or expose more information than normal, depending on how comfortable they feel on the internet. Some people distort information on their pages in order to seem more appealing to others, but I don’t feel the need to distort information about myself. All the people who are looking at my page already know me, so there is really no need for me to role play or fabricate information in order to make myself seem appealing to other people. Because I already know the people I communicate with online, I don’t feel the need to put an excessive amount of information about myself on my pages.
Although both of my web pages have privacy controls on them that only allow my friends to view my profile, nowadays you never really know who is looking at your profiles. For this reason, I don’t put any personal information on my web pages that I wouldn’t want a stranger to know, such as my phone number or address. Surprisingly, there are people who actually do put this kind of information on their web pages, which I think is a stupid idea because you never know who can access this information and use it to their advantage.
Also, I try to put minimal information about myself online because I don’t want it to affect my ability to get a job. Nowadays, prospective employers are using the internet, especially sites like MySpace and Facebook, to search for and get information about prospective employees. If they see something on an applicant’s page that they don’t like, such as pictures with excessive partying or offensive remarks, then they won’t hire that person. Although as I said before, I have blocked my page so that only people who I add as friends are able to see my profiles, so a potential employer probably couldn’t access my page, I feel that it is better to be safe than sorry. For this reason, I try to make sure that my page is a true reflection of the person that I am but at the same time portrays me in a positive manner. This week’s reading talks about how we judges others based on their online profiles. I don’t want people to make negative judgments about who I am as a person, and if there is not too much information about me online, it may be a little harder for someone to judge me. I’d rather have people wait until they meet me in person to make judgments about me.
There are many people nowadays who use personal pages, such as MySpace and Facebook, to meet other people and make friends or even dates. While I don’t think any less of people who do this, I personally would never do something like that. I think it is too big of a risk, especially since there are so many predators online. While this may seem paranoid, I don’t want to put myself into that kind of situation. However, many people are starting to use personal pages to network. While it does seem more convenient to be able to make friends over the internet, I think it greatly reduces the amount of face-to-face communication that people engage in. In my opinion, we shouldn’t sacrifice interpersonal interactions for the sake of online communications; Rather, people should find a balance between the two!
I agree with what you are saying.Myspace is just a cool place to reach friends and family. I mainly keep in touch with old high school friends. I had a MySpace page since 2003 and recently asked to be removed. First of all it can be a all out “drama for your mama.” I am trying to be a police officer, and they check your MySpace and Facebook. I made it easier for me to just cancel my page. When that phase pass, ill have to set up another account. I guess they want to see my online self-presentation if its different in person or online. I wanted to keep my identity the way people see me in person.
I am not a huge supporter of Myspace or Facebook but I think in your case it does seem like a good resource for keeping in touch with friends. You seem to have a handle on it and use the pages in a responsible way. I defiantly agree that using sites like myspace and facebook too much will lead to little face-to-face interactions and I see that as a major problem. I agree that people really need to remember to keep a balance with their communication.
Hi Erica! I also have both Myspace and Facebook, but I am the opposite of you because I use my Facebook religiously and rarely go on my Myspace. But I do agree with you about the whole meeting people online through these sites to start dating, I think it’s a little scary now days to do that as well. Although I do have a friend who met her husband on Myspace and they are a great couple, but this is very rare. I also mentioned in my Blog about the whole job thing. Employers are so keen on checking out their employee’s profiles to make sure there is nothing that could potentially harm the reputation of their company. I to do not want to take the risk of losing my job over something as silly as a drunken picture!