“Why Youth Heart MySpace” takes an interesting perspective on a website that is usually seen in a rather negative light. As the article mentions, many people focus on the ideas of bullying and online predators when speaking about MySpace instead of considering the benefits this website offers for youth. This article makes some great points when exploring the different valuable aspects of MySpace. “Why Youth Heart MySpace” points out the ways in which MySpace can provide youth with a public space to socialize that is not controlled by the adults in their lives. The article also addresses the way in which youth use it for identity production and for socialization.
As someone who loved MySpace in my teenage years, I personally agree with a lot of the points the authors of this article emphasize. As a teenager, I loved being able to have an identity that my parents were not aware of and be able to talk and ‘hang-out’ with my friends in an atmosphere uncontrolled by my parents. I also felt that my experience on MySpace was pretty valuable in terms of my identity production, how I conceptualized my own identity and how I represented myself both online and offline.
While I did feel this article was very valuable in producing a new perspective on MySpace, I also felt it somewhat glossed over the very real dangers of MySpace, such as cyber-bullying. I think it would’ve been really interesting if the article referenced some things that students, educators and parents could do to address the issue of cyber-bullying. While I never personally experienced cyber-bullying, I did have many friends who did and I think that cyber-bullying can be a large problem with MySpace and other social networking sites. This is not to say bullying does not exist in other mediums as well but bullying on the internet is slightly different because it can be anonymous and you cannot always know who is doing the bullying. While I agree that it is incredibly important to note the values of MySpace, it is also important for us to remember to be proactive and think about preventative measures for issues like cyber-bullying as well as resources for people who experience this.
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An example of cyber-bullying
Cyber-bullying has gotten a lot of attention in recent years, especially with the case of Megan Meier, a thirteen year old girl who was bullied on MySpace by the mother of one of her friends who was pretending to be a boy who liked Megan.
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A picture of Lori Drew, the woman who cyber-bullied Megan Meier
Megan eventually committed suicide partially as a result of the cyber-bullying. The video below gives a few more details about this awful situation.
Clearly, this is a problem that should not be ignored. While educators and parents are taking steps to address this issue, it is important that we continue to remain vigilant in dealing with this and trying to ensure that it occurs as little as possible. As a future teacher, I want to keep myself aware of the values of certain websites (such as MySpace and Facebook) but also keep myself aware of the dangers that also occur. When looking for resources to deal with cyber-bullying, I found two sites that give some tips on dealing with cyber bullying. The first site deals with possible preventative measures people on the internet can do to reduce cyber bullying. The second site deals with things educators can do in order to try to encourage students not to cyber-bully other students.
Tags: Cyber-Bullying, Media, MySpace, technology, Teenagers
