Social Web sites can create friends, foes

By Valerie Westen
The Collegian

Today, MySpace is more than ever a part of students’ social life. With over 136 million open accounts worldwide, it is a place for friends, music and sharing. But many have seen the not-so-bright side of the Web site.

College students are a target audience for this decade’s Internet hit, and Fresno State students are no exception.

The majority of Fresno State students will say they use MySpace mainly to keep in touch with their friends, but also to find old friends and make new ones.

“Everybody is on MySpace, so it is a fun way to stay in touch without it being a hassle,” Edgar Castellon, a senior business major, said.

Patty Ayala, a senior psychology major, said, “I keep in contact with my friends by sending them a bulletin, it’s like a memo to all my friends that help me save myself many phone calls.”

Most students check their pages as often as a couple of times a week or up to several times a day, which may almost sound like an addictive habit.

Larry D. Hosen, Ph. D. of California State University, Dominguez Hills, recently conducted a research on 1,257 users to find out the downsides of MySpace.

He found that 97 percent of members had had to block someone from their pages at least once because of reasons such as “vulgar, annoying, pervert, rude, harrassment, etc.”

Hosen also found that almost one-third of the surveyed students reported having at least one bad “MySpace experience.”

These bad experiences may have something to do with the fact that personal comments can be seen by many people when users do not always want them to be seen.

“People post personal things on each other’s pages, and the world finds out. I lost a few friends because of misunderstandings with something said or mentioned in a comment,” said Castellon.
Ayala also encountered a bad experience through the Web site.

“I lost my job over MySpace. I worked in a club on weekends but decided to have my birthday in a different one and sent the invitation on MySpace. My boss found out that way and fired me for promoting another club,” Ayala said.

Other negative sides of the site Fresno State students mentioned were harassment, cheating, rumors and lies which appear to be common and sometimes inevitable.

Many students also agreed that MySpace is a “space for friends,” but not for dating, and although a few people may have found a mate on the site, many more have broken up because of it.

So what can students do to protect themselves from bad experiences on MySpace? A good idea is to start by deleting people they do not trust or know well from their friends’ list. Then they may consider setting their profile to private to be seen and contacted only by their approved friends. Finally to avoid any misunderstanding, accounts can be set approve or deny any message before they appear on a page.

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