MySpace?

[Phi]

Have any of you seen any personal development groups on MySpace?

I must confess that I sometimes end up using a lot of time there, but it surprises me that I can't find any groups about personal development.

Anybody heard of such groups?

[andrew]

Probably because the 14-25 year old demographic isn't as into personal development as much as they are into being the most popular.

I haven't seen any myself, you can search and look at the listings of groups, or you can make you yourself if you're not happy with the results.

[Dave Kaminski]

I've always given a thumbs-down to MySpace, because of it's member-based focus on promiscuity, negative music and activities.

It seems the most popular users are proponents of binge drinking, excessive drug use and lots of random sexual activity.

I could be mistaken, but in the things I've seen, it's much more of a problem than it is helpful.

Has anyone else seen this? I could be awfully mistaken, but it seems like 'The Real World,' which from my point of view is a HORRIBLE representation of the real world, but bigger and younger.

[andrew]

As in the MTV show?

Haha, I know I saw that the other day actually, without any volume. They had it on at the gym, and you're right, it's nothing close to the real world. It does a great job of flooding youth with propaganda though. It's mostly just drinking, drama, and sex in one way or another. But those are what sell, and that's what kids want, so there it is.

I use myspace frequently to keep in touch with old friends in NY and to make new friends in my area. Everyone has it, so it's great way to communicate. I've met some cool people/done fun things through myspace. And it's great for meeting girls, really. But I'm 19, so what can I say? I use it as a tool for, just like anything can be used for or against you. I'm a designer, so personaly, I hate myspace because of it's design and unstability. But instead of fighting it, I learn to just flow with it. I get much more out of using it to keep in touch and meet people than I would not using it.

But Dave, that's the demographic myspace is appealing to. Teens and college students, so what do you expect?

[Dave Kaminski]

Originally Posted by andrew

But Dave, that's the demographic myspace is appealing to. Teens and college students, so what do you expect?

What do I expect? Same.

What do I want? Improvement in teens and college students! I'm both, 19 & a college student until the end of this semester. Kids these days! :P

[CeciL]

Come on now Dave... Depends on your POV... Since your so against self destructive behavior why is your sig a link to a cigar shop?

[gberardi]

Originally Posted by Dave Kaminski

What do I expect? Same.

What do I want? Improvement in teens and college students! I'm both, 19 & a college student until the end of this semester. Kids these days! :P

There is Facebook, which is much more stable and much more interesting, in my opinion. I believe there are personal development groups (and I should probably join one...).

There are other communities similar to MySpace, but they focus on specific industries or hobbies or skills. You may find more luck there.

And while a lot of people on MySpace seem like they are there for sex and booze, you would probably think the same about college (and high school) students in general. Your MySpace experience will be as bad as the friends you keep in touch with there, right? Well, it will always be worse because I also hate the instability of it.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Dave Kaminski

I've always given a thumbs-down to MySpace, because of it's member-based focus on promiscuity, negative music and activities.

It seems the most popular users are proponents of binge drinking, excessive drug use and lots of random sexual activity.

I could be mistaken, but in the things I've seen, it's much more of a problem than it is helpful.

Has anyone else seen this? I could be awfully mistaken, but it seems like 'The Real World,' which from my point of view is a HORRIBLE representation of the real world, but bigger and younger.

Sounds like a broad generalization based on the emo stigma attached to it. It's quite easy to avoid those kind of people the way you do in real life. The biggest plus to myspace is its ridiculous ubiquity. Everyone has a myspace, so the chances of finding old friends and keeping in contact with people is high. There are also a lot of good people on there, but you have to look for them, just as you would in real life.


Who says its representing the real world, outside of you?

Myspace is aproblem, in the same way as videogames are a problem. Meaning, its NOT a problem. The problem stems from themselves and not the site.

If you wanted to make a real case against myspace, you should talk about the bombardment of advertising and promotion from 3rd parties...its almost as bad as television.

[Dave Kaminski]

Originally Posted by CeciL

Come on now Dave... Depends on your POV... Since your so against self destructive behavior why is your sig a link to a cigar shop?

I'm not against self-destructive behavior, as long as it takes up less than or equal to 10 percent of your time and doesn't integrate its way into other activities.

I am against mutually destructive behavior, which is what I feel I've spoken about. Please correct me if I'm wrong! Oh also I don't think smoking a couple cigars a week is the worst thing one could do

Originally Posted by Lucas

Who says its representing the real world, outside of you?

Myspace is aproblem, in the same way as videogames are a problem. Meaning, its NOT a problem. The problem stems from themselves and not the site.

If you wanted to make a real case against myspace, you should talk about the bombardment of advertising and promotion from 3rd parties...its almost as bad as television.

Thanks Lucas I never thought about it that way! You guys are right, I guess it's not so bad.

To be completely honest, the reason I first disliked it was because it's such a meat market, like a virtual super-club, and a lot of guys were trying to hook up with my (ex)girlfriend when she got one.

I never claimed to be perfect .

[Dating Specialist]

But there are real cool people on MySpace too!

You can find some serious professionals in there, and I'm getting to know people from different interests. Pretty interesting I would say. Or maybe because I'm more discerning towards the friends I have?

[CeciL]

You can smoke cigars until your lungs rot. The point is you are promoting it as MySpace is promoting itself. What really makes the difference is you know for sure cigar smoking is bad period for anyone that does it. While everyone I know has a myspace (Except me, lol I think it is clunky, I'll make my own site thank you.) and they don't seem to be binging on alcohol and having promiscuous sex. It is going to happen regardless...granted MySpace gives it a higher chance but that is the price to pay for instant gratification technology.

I think MySpace is much safer that just chatting. If they are not lying from the start you can get a good idea what the person is about by what they post, talk about, friends they have, how long they have had it and even their layout will tell a lot about them. Versus a chat where you can come up with lies on the fly. Just another step in social evolution, can't wait to see the next one...

[Jm4362]

Originally Posted by Dating Specialist

But there are real cool people on MySpace too!

Yeah. the Dalai Lama has a MySpace. Is that not awesome?

[Phi]

Where is his MySpace? Do you have a link?

[ViceVirtue]

By the way, MySpace's largest visitor demographic by far (40%), is persons age 35-54 - and over half of all visitors are 35 or older. Based on the informal thread on these boards, I'd be willing to bet the demographic of Stevepavlina.com is younger than that of MySpace.

Just some food for thought.

*Note the recent MySpace demo stats (google them) are based on visitors and not necessarily members, however. Actual member demographics may or may not be different.

[Cassie]

Phi, have you checked out this thread?


Zaadz may be a social site you'd be interested in.

[stephencp]

"It's mostly just drinking, drama, and sex in one way or another."

sure, and this forum is certainly not into that... just observe the number of posts and views on the "masturbation" thread....

Stephen
Power-Book Library: Free personal development, success, inspiration and motivational classics

[Phi]

Originally Posted by ViceVirtue

By the way, MySpace's largest visitor demographic by far (40%), is persons age 35-54 - and over half of all visitors are 35 or older. Based on the informal thread on these boards, I'd be willing to bet the demographic of Stevepavlina.com is younger than that of MySpace.

I would definately have guessed that the average was around 20 or so. Most of the profiles do after all look like they belong to teenagers.

Any link to the statistics mentioned above?

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Dave Kaminski

Thanks Lucas I never thought about it that way! You guys are right, I guess it's not so bad.

To be completely honest, the reason I first disliked it was because it's such a meat market, like a virtual super-club, and a lot of guys were trying to hook up with my (ex)girlfriend when she got one.

I never claimed to be perfect .

Hey, I am not trying to be down on you, MySpace does have some problems (slow, clunky, porn spam bots, too many ads), but a lot of them are inherent to the web. Some of them are problems with people, such as the meat market you talked about, people accepting friends for the sake of it, people spamming bulletins, the emo stigma.

You can avoid most of them.

[Nicketas]

I think it's funny that teenagers and college students think they are being novel, funny, and/or original with everything they do, when in reality their fashion accessories, favorite books, favorite music, vices, and choice of sexual partners was decided years ago by old & boring marketing managers & viacom and young & rubicam....

[Nicketas]

Originally Posted by Dave Kaminski

I've always given a thumbs-down to MySpace, because of it's member-based focus on promiscuity, negative music and activities.

It seems the most popular users are proponents of binge drinking, excessive drug use and lots of random sexual activity.

I could be mistaken, but in the things I've seen, it's much more of a problem than it is helpful.

Has anyone else seen this? I could be awfully mistaken, but it seems like 'The Real World,' which from my point of view is a HORRIBLE representation of the real world, but bigger and younger.

The mainstream media (as well as, at times, myspace itself) wants to give you the impression that myspace is like this so they can scare you into watching thier news segment$ and increa$e rating$.

Internet pedophilia, for example, is actually down because most pedophiles aren't stupid enough to make a public profile or post in forums because these are easily traceable. Pedophiles prefer anonymous chatrooms, which are seriously dwindling in use because nobody likes them anymore.

[Kiba]

I don't care much about myspace because I am not in their demography and target audience.

I am a techie, so I frequent tech sites like slashdot. I am 15 year old.

Also, I didn't sign up on there, because of their generally terrible reputation of being a lousy site.

[Michael Chui]

Originally Posted by Jm4362

Yeah. the Dalai Lama has a MySpace. Is that not awesome?

And Murdoch has three or four MySpace profiles. Can you prove it's him?

[icesar]

It doesn't look like these have been brought up on this thread. Have people checked out Zaadz.com and PathConnect.com, they're social network sites for people interested in personal development and growth?