MySpace is all about "communities," be they a group of friends from the same city or school; people who have a common lifestyle, religion, or political viewpoint; or people who gather together around broader communities such as music, films, books, or a particular band, genre, author, or film. In other words, a community is anything that two or more people say it is. Some communities are strictly virtualmost of the members probably have never met face to faceand others are an extension of real-life communities, such as those built around a particular school, church, sports team, or workplace. We can't possibly write about even a fraction of the communities that have formed through the service, but we can talk about some of MySpace's major interest areas. The other thing we can't do is to point you to one screen or menu that lists all the communities, but we can help you find your way around. Finding CommunityOne place to look for community is in the main navigation bar at the top of every page. There, you'll find links to Film, Videos, and Music. You'll also find links to Blog, which is where some people find community (in a more text-based way), and Groups, which is the natural spot for people gathering around specific topics. Another place to look is the pale-blue box below the navigation bar on MySpace's home page (to get there, click the MySpace.com link at the top of any page). In that box, you'll find the many communities MySpace has added more recently: Comedy, Filmmakers, Games, Horoscopes, Movies, Music Videos, and Schools. That same box will take you to communities built around specific community tools: Blogs, MySpaceIM, Chat Rooms, and Groups (Figure 4.21). Figure 4.21. To get a feel for the sheet number and diversity of MySpace Groups, glance through the 222,683 groups under Music alone. (Music is the original MySpace interest group.)All in all, community on MySpace is pretty much wherever you are. MusicMusicand promoting independent musicianshas always been an integral part of MySpace. Music is the leading MySpace community and home to thousands of artists of every genre, from garage bands and indies to major recording artists, who have profiles complete with songs, bios, lyrics, and more (Figure 4.22). You'll find a link to the Music community on the blue navigation bar near the top of every page. Figure 4.22. MySpace Music's home page.Founded as a platform for independent and startup artists to help them gain more exposure, this part of MySpace has become such a force and fan base that mainstream musicians are now participating as well, including Madonna, Shakira, and Keith Urban. MySpace Music has become so huge that in November 2005, MySpace launched its own record label, called MySpace Records, and in January 2006, News Corp (the parent company) announced plans to launch a UK version of MySpace to cover the mega UK music scene. Music profiles work pretty much the same as regular MySpace pages with a slight change in look and feel. Musicians can upload as many as three songs to their profiles; other MySpacers can choose to add these songs to their profiles as a personalization feature. FilmFilm is also a link on the main blue navigation bar. The Film community is a portal for independent filmmakers to gain exposure, to network and build fan bases, and to showcase their work. The functionality parallels that of MySpace Music and has features for indie filmmakers and fans, including a search function to locate filmmakers by role, location, film, or keyword; a list of top filmmakers by genre; and a list of screenings in your area. You'll also find filmmaker forums, where the artists answer questions and discuss their films with fans. And just in case you or your teen wants to make it big on the big screen, there's a classified section with listings for industry jobs, auditions, casting calls, and more. BooksThere's a link to Books in the box just below the navigation bar on the MySpace.com home page. This section features book reviews, blogs, and featured book groups, as well as a Top Books section and search functionality. It's kind of like a regular book club, only virtual, and with lots more information, but no tea and cookies (Figure 4.23). Figure 4.23. Your 24/7 virtual book club.ComedyYou'll find a link to Comedy in the same box as Books. The section has a variety of humor-related content and interaction. Similar to the Music and Film portals, MySpace Comedy is a platform for comedians to gain exposure, network, and build a fan base, as well as another venue where users (and aspiring professional comics) can socialize. Comedians can post profiles, list and search for gigs, and network in the forum. MySpacers can peruse forums and exchange jokes and funny stories; search for sketches, improv, and stand-up comedy shows; and check out the week's funniest MySpace video (Figure 4.24). Figure 4.24. For MySpacers seeking a little comic relief (or serious professional networking), check out the Comedy section.Key Parenting Point Hard as it is to imagine a comedian telling a dirty joke, there can be off-color comedy here that some parents may feel is inappropriate for teens. We recommend that you check out this forum firsthand and gauge whether you feel comfortable with your child's perusing the material. GamesMySpace (or any cross-section of online life) would be incomplete without a section devoted to video, online, and PC games. This type of interactive entertainment is a big part of virtual communities and social networking, and several classic multiplayer games (such as Dungeons & Dragons) have helped spawn modern online social networks. MySpace Categories include sports, action, trivia, TV shows (such as "Family Feud"), board games, and puzzles. Games is basically a portal where gamers can connect, play solo, and compete with other MySpace users. SchoolsThe MySpace Schools community is a sort of after-school virtual hangout for high-school and college students and alumni, but its biggest and most vocal group is clearly high-school students. College students are more likely to hang out on Facebook (more on that in a moment). In case you missed it, in Chapter 2 we talked about how high-school students use MySpace and, as we hope we made clear, it is a vast network of communities of students most commonly socializing with friends at their own schools (Figure 4.25). Figure 4.25. Each of the Top 10 high schools has more than 6,000 MySpace members!Finding ClassmatesA lot of kids use MySpace's search feature to find classmates from their school. Here's how:
You can narrow your search by gender; age range (starting with 16); marital status; dating status; whether they're current students or alumni; year of graduation; and even more options, such as major, clubs, and Greek affiliation. Although this feature is primarily used by current students, Larry tried it out on his high-school graduating class of "a long time ago." Out of about a thousand people from his class, he found three classmates. Locating School GroupsSchools have always been a powerful source of community, and so it is on the social-networking scene. If you have a school in your present or past, MySpace aims to have a forum for you, the service tells us. Each school forum (also called a group) has its own moderator, who applies to MySpace for the job. "We personally review each school-moderator application form," a spokesperson from MySpace told us. The moderator's job is to keep the discussion appropriate and on topic (he or she can block users and delete posts). Classmates can also rate the moderator, and MySpace reviews those ratings; enough negative ones can get the moderator replaced. (MySpace staff stays in touch with school moderators.) School forums have their own classified ads associated with them, so users can swap or sell textbooks, find bands for prom night, or hire a tutor. MySpace distinguishes between high-school classifieds (which don't include ads for roommates and apartments) and college-level ones (which do). Both current students and alums are welcome in the school forums. If you want to locate your kids or any school group on MySpace, here's how:
Groups that match your search are displayed. These could include a group of current students, an alumni group, the Class of 2002, or any other group associated with that school (Figure 4.27). Figure 4.27. Here are some of the forums associated with Grant High School in Van Nuys, California (among other Grant High Schools around the country).Tip We found that you really need to type the school's zip code and choose a number from the Miles From pull-down menu (the Any option doesn't work) to zoom in on your school of choice. Specifying the state matters less than the zip code. Facebook: The 'Other' Student Social-Networking SiteAlthough MySpace is certainly used by plenty of college students, another social-networking site, called Facebook, is very popular on college campuses (Figure 4.28). In fact, Facebook says it's on every four-year college and university campus in the United States. Figure 4.28. The very spare Facebook home page.Unlike MySpace, Facebook has an authentication system that makes it harder to be anonymous in this service. College students and staff members must use their .edu email accounts to sign up (and you get an .edu account only if you are associated with a college or university). Facebook recently started offering its services to high-school students (who don't need .edu email addresses but must be invited by other students from their high school), as well as to employees of companies who have an approved company email address for Facebook. Chat RoomsA chat room is an online space where people "chat" by typing and sending short messages to people on the same page in real time. Entering a chat room is essentially the virtual equivalent of a cocktail party. You schmooze, socialize, maybe connect, and have extended conversations with one or more individuals, but in-depth conversations are rare, to say the least. Because MySpace is a social network, chat rooms are a popular feature. There are numerous chat rooms in MySpace Chat, organized by categories and topics. To log on to a chat room:
Key Parenting Point MySpace does have moderators who, from time to time, check the chat rooms for disruptive and inappropriate behavior, but they're not working around the clock, and they're not in every chat room. Even if they're there, moderators can deal with problems only after the fact. So kids need to know what not to say and to be on the lookout for rude, obnoxious, and occasionally dangerous people. When you enter the room, you'll see streams of short messages among the visitors. You can read the threads and get the gist of what's going on or dive right in. Lots of people lurk, watching the conversation for a bit before jumping in. Typical online etiquette is to announce your presence with something like "Hi, people." MySpace has age-related chat rooms for teens and people in their 20s, 30s, and so on. Having a space just for teens is a terrific ideaand the room is off limits to anyone whose stated age is older than 20but there is nothing to stop older people from going into that room by lying about their age. There is also nothing to stop teens from entering rooms for older folks, even if they don't lie about their age. Although there are moderators for some chat rooms, moderators don't patrol the rooms 100 percent of the time. We recommend that if at any time you notice disruptive or inappropriate behavior, you should just leave the chat room. To leave, simply close the application window. If you notice that some user is repeatedly causing a disturbance, and a moderator isn't intervening, you can file a complaint or report the user to MySpace Customer Care by clicking the Contact MySpace link at the bottom of every page (choose Report Abuse below Please Select a Topic in the Contact Request box). Key Parenting Point Chat is not a great place for kids anywhere on the Internet, unless it's clearly designated for kids only and monitored 24/7 by responsible human beings (AOL's Kids Only is one example). This is because conversations in chat rooms can easily and quickly become sexually explicit. And tempers can flare in chat rooms; people can forget their manners (kind of like the way some folks act when they're angry while driving a car). When your kids are in a chat room, what they type can be seen immediately by everyone else in the room; there's no way to take it back. So warn them to be careful not to enter anything that personally identifies them or that they might later regret having said. Let kids know that if they see something that's hurtful, they should try not to take it personally; it says more about the person saying it than about them. In general, MySpace profiles and blogs, where users have some editing control and are generally "talking" with their friends, are better for teens. ForumsForums are for holding discussions online and are great resources for questions, help, and advice. On other sites, they are commonly referred to as message boards, discussion boards, and bulletin boards. Forums differ from chat rooms and instant messaging because they focus more on single topics, are generally more in-depth than chat, and don't encourage real-time personal interaction. Still, you need to be careful that you don't say anything inappropriate and have a thick skin in case someone else forgets to mind their manners. To participate in MySpace Forums:
Key Parenting Point As we mention elsewhere in the book, we run a parents' forum about social-networking safety at BlogSafety.com. It's a great way to test out this technology and maybe pick up some tips from other parents in the process. |