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The MySpace Generation
I know about the Baby Boomers and Generation X. However, The MySpace Generation is a new one on me, or is it? I have heard this term MySpace Generation a couple of times in the last couple of months and lately it has me thinking. First of all, who are these people in the MySpace Generation? The answer to this questions is that they are young people from 12 -25. Why are they called the MySpace Generation? The easy answer to that is because individuals from 12-25 are totally computer and electronics literate and are online, or on their cell phones or texting each other or whatever, hours upon hours per day. OK, so this group of individuals is computer and electronics literate and is online for hours a day. That still doesn’t answer the question of why they are called MySpace Generation. The answer to that is the phenomenon known as MySpace.com. MySpace.com is a virtual hangout. According to MySpace.com’s web page http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/AboutUs.aspx
MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends.
As you can see, MySpace.com is a social gathering place for all to go. To network, to create, to listen to music, to go if you are lonely, it’s a place to go that will pass the time. It is a place to go to meet new people. MySpace.com is a place to go to find your love. Is it good for the MySpace Generation to be so connected? You can’t answer this question with a simple yes or no. I believe that the answer is complex. I’m going to raise many issues and discuss both the negatives and positives. You then will decide. The first issue that I would like to discuss is the cell phone. Cell phones in my opinion are revolutionary. It has freed up people beyond their wildest dreams. I mean workers from all fields are no longer tied to their desks or workplace. They have been given the freedom of mobility. A good thing! Cell phones also allow parents of the MySpace Generation to keep track of them. No longer do parents have to wonder where their children are. Simply pick up the phone and call them, assuming of course that you have imposed the sanctions on them if they don’t respond to your calls or call you when they are supposed to. This keeps us all connected at all times. The only down side of the connected issues is that it could run the parents tons of money. The down side for the MySpace Generation about being connected to cell phones is the fact that they can be tracked wherever they are. Many parents have gone through the fear of their children getting their driving license. Cell phones alleviate many of those fears for me at least. Fears like what if the car breaks down? Well, they can call us to help. When my kids started to drive, they had to call me when they arrived where they were going, when they left where they were and arrived somewhere else. It was a great comfort. The down side to all of this connection is that many in the MySpace Generation are on the phone way to much. Give it a break already. Studies have proven that talking on the cell while driving causes more accidents that people who drive under the influence. Something needs to be done about the cell and driving. Many states are outlawing it. Talk to your MySpace Generationers. Tell them to disconnect while driving. It could save theirs and other’s lives. Another way the MySpace Generation stays connected with the cell phones is Text Messaging. Simply, they send a written message from their phone to another phone. I often ask the question, why? Why do you need to send a written message from one phone to another when you can simply call the phone? The answer I received from many in the MySpace Generation is that “texting” is used when you can’t call your friends. You know like while they are in class for instance. My response was that you should be paying attention to the teacher or boss or speaker or… My son told me that texting allows him to communicate with his friends while in school. He also complained as did my other son and daughter that they are missing tons of messages by no longer having the ability to text message from their phone. Yes, you can turn that feature off. If all that is not enough, the phones also have the ability to surf the Internet. Honestly, is staying connected that important? To me and the Baby Boomer generation, the answer is no. But to the MySpace Generation, it is. They have to have the ability to get their music if nothing else. Download this; download that, all for an extra fee of course. Answer me this, why do they have to download new ring tones for their phones all the time at 2 bucks a pop? I don’t get it. Another piece of must have equipment is the MP3 player. Now available with 40 and 60 gig hard drives. We are talking about the MP3 player (the most famous one is the IPod that can hold 10-15 thousand songs. Can anyone ever listen to that many songs? No wonder why the music industry is so upset about piracy. A library of 10 thousand songs should cost a fortune but the MySpace Generation seems to share real well. By now, I know a lot of you are saying to yourselves, why is the author making such a big deal about all of this? Every generation has there thing and the MySpace Generation is no different. You are right but here is the problem. All of this social networking is exposing the MySpace Generation, literally. Internet predators search sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com looking for those unsuspecting MySpace Generation individuals that they can prey on. All the information about the individual is there. The MySpace Generation individual placed it there willingly. We have all seen the news shows about these predators looking for young girls. Also, there are individuals who are trying to steal the MySpace Generation’s identity causing them harm that can continue to affect them for years to come. All in all, I think that parents of the MySpace Generation need to educate their kids. Inform them to keep their information to themselves. Inform them that there are many people out there who are out to harm them in some way.
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