It’s an internet revolution. Everyone on the planet can have an entire web-page to showcase the oddities that make us unique. You can show off your taste in music, movies, videos and books. You can recognize each of your similarly web-connected friends by adding them to your friends list. You can join special interest groups like “Southern Gardeners” or “Japanese techno” or “We hate the show Friends”. You can reconnect with long-lost high school friends. You can post pictures of yourself and allow people to rate them. You can keep a blog. You can keep a calendar. You can do it all…. on “My Space.”

“My Space” is the current media poster child of internet-evil. Young teenagers can set up their pages… full of sexually charged innuendos. Then the dirty old men who troll the internet can get their jollies by reading it… or by contacting them “dateline” style… and try and arrange a hook-up with someone who is underage. If you scroll through a few pages you’ll find no shortage of pictures of underage drinking, references to drug use, suggestive pictures. Of course, you’ll find this by just scrolling through the internet in general. And that’s exactly why all of this “my space” hate is unfounded. The “my space” nay-sayers are upset that they are able to find a high concentration of teenage debauchery. Perhaps the “my space” nay-sayers are just lazy. This sort of bravado is all over the internet and has been for years. And let’s be honest here, teenagers have been bragging about their conquests for as long as parents have been disapproving of them. Check your shelves. I bet… stuffed away on a back shelf… your teenage diary is there. It’s full of your deepest-darkest teenage deeds… thoughts… questions. The only difference between your diary and the “my space” pages is that you kept your diary hidden away under a mattress or behind a drawer while the “my space” pages are out there for everyone in the whole world to see. Now techno-savvy parents can check up on their worryingly worldly teens and most parents don’t like what they see.

As the old School House Rock advised us… “knowledge is power.” So anyone who is curious should head over and set up a “My Space” page. Check it out. Browse around. (Here’s a hint… start with my pop-tart page… http://www.myspace.com/your_pop_tart) Look for your kid. See what they’re telling the world, then maybe have a conversation with them about what you’ve seen. If they’re putting it out there, they’re hoping it will be found. Why not start a page of your own? . You can show off your taste in music, movies, videos and books. You can recognize each of your similarly web-connected friends by adding them to your friends list. You can join special interest groups like “Southern Gardeners” or “Japanese techno” or “We hate the show Friends”. You can reconnect with long-lost high school friends. You can post pictures of yourself and allow people to rate them. You can keep a blog. You can keep a calendar. You can do it all…. on “My Space.”