Barbara Nantz’s Ethnography about Myspace
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Myspace is a social network that people can come together and find other people like them. They can also look for people with the same interest, hobbies, or professions. If you have moved several times, like I have, you can also find old friends by searching your highschool by graduation year. The ways to meet or find people are endless if the user registered with some real information. I found that married females are harder to find, but the search can be done by location and first names. This social network is a way to share pictures as well as keep in touch with family and friends. I personally keep in touch with my dad who lives in New York. I post private things to my myspace account that only people on my friends list can see. If I don’t know them, then they can’t see any of my private pictures. This is a safety method for those that are afraid to be too social on the Internet. I also have pictures that are public which anyone can see and comment on. I have my page set to public, but you could make it were only the people you choose can see your whole profile by setting your page to private.
The picture policy states in general that you can’t submit any offensive pictures, but I felt that was a judgement call on the viewer. So, I read more to see what “offensive” was to myspace. It stated: ”Any photo containing cartoons, comics, celebrities, nudity, pornography, sexually explicit images or any copyrighted image (unless you own the copyright) is not permitted. Photos of celebrities and cartoon or comic images are generally copyrighted by the owner.” This was a much better explanation, but I’ve seen several pictures that the person was flipping off the camera that I personally find offensive. I don’t see anything like that in the rules, so I guess it’s allowed. If you do have a complaint, they provide a link to email customer service the detailed information over the incident. I thought about emailing them about the people flipping off the camera, but didn’t. Besides, I don’t have to look or associate with that person if I don’t want to.
Also, copyright issues could get myspace into quite a bit of trouble, Since they stated not to post copyrighted material they are not responsible for anyone that does. I don’t think this would be a problem, but you always need to abide by the copyright laws. The way people are willing to sue, it is better to be safe than sorry.
While socializing in myspace I looked at several mypace accounts and joined several groups. I found for the most part, people are here just to socialize and talk with people while showing off pictures and their abilities to create a cool home page. I noticed that the pages are representative of the personalities of the people they represent. Whether you keep your page private or public also shows how much each person trust the internet with their information. During the semester, I heard of several times when a person’s identity was taken and a false account was created for them. This is the things that remind you that you are putting yourself into a world wide web and not just the screen in front of you. Working with the social network of people you always have to mind your manners and make sure what you are meaning to say comes across in the written word. I only read one reply on a group discussion that I thought might have been written with the intent to hurt someone’s feelings. It was quickly commented on by the other group members to help cool any fire that might be started over the remark. For the most part, it is safe and as long as you are there for the right reasons, should have no problems with the myspace rules.
Most of the people that I associated with said that they joined myspace to connect with old friends. Some like to keep up with friends from highschool or college. The other reason people joined was to find people with like interests or beliefs. When you are working in a stressful profession or have beliefs that are not readily shared by most, it is nice to have people to talk to that share you stress and beliefs. That is why most organizations like AA, have support groups to share stories and hardships together. It makes people feel better to know that they aren’t alone in their battles. This site provides this opportunity for many who want to remain anonymous will still feeling part of a group.
Myspace does reserve the right to pull any posts or blog entries that they think is in violation of their policies. This is what they claim, but I have not seen it happen. I think that their monitoring is mostly accomplished through the other users of myspace. They also have set ways to tell if a photo contains nudity and probably has certain words in a blog that set off red flags for myspace. This is is what I have herd through others, but have not tested this policy (if you know what I mean). I am not for sure how the rules are enforced except by being reported by another user. For the most part, it seems like the users can do what ever they want as long as they don’t offend the other users.
I asked my students at school why they use myspace and they said for “another form or communication”. They want to be able to talk to their friends while they are online so they don’t have to get off and call each other. I think that is a good reason, but instant messaging would be a better tool for that. I know that they like to check each others profiles out and see how many friends each one has. I feel it is a little bit of a competition between them.
For my conclusion, I would like to state that myspace is a social place for people to meet, keep in touch, or get to know each other. It seems that many know each other from past experiences and just want to have a place to post new information for all to see. I noticed that, the ones in my teacher group, mostly chat through the groups with people they don’t know. I could tell from lots of their interactions, that even thought they have never met, they are friends. That is what happens when you bring a group of people together with similar interests.
