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The MySpace Marvel

MySpace has quickly become a very popular site throughout the world. Its membership has gone up from a few thousands to few millions in a very short time. It has turned the face of online communities upside down with its popularity growing by the day. Anyone who wants to find out about his friend or acquaintance searches MySpace first. So much so the word MySpace has become identical with online communities just like Google is for search engines. It had become a common phrase to say ‘Google it’ for doing searches on the internet. Similarly MySpace, despite many other sites offering same or similar services, has dominated the world of online communities. It has truly become a phenomenon.

Who are MySpace members?

The members of MySpace come from various religious and ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, political beliefs, cultures, interests, sexual orientation, occupation, age groups, financial level and other parameters. Thus the membership covers a diverse conglomeration of people all around the world. It differs from other online communities or message boards / forums which are usually limited to a specific target group. While members of similar interests may only be interacting with each other on MySpace, there are many such groups covering people from different walks of life in MySpace. Hence it may not be too much of an exaggeration to say just about everybody is a MySpace member.

MySpace Lurkers

The actual MySpace community is likely to be larger than the membership figures because public websites of MySpace can be viewed by non members also. The latter are called lurkers. Only private profile is restricted to members of the community to which he/she belongs. Hence the effective strength of MySpace community is very large and immeasurable.

The lurkers may be of 2 types; those who are innocent and just want to look at others’ profile as a pastime. There may be others with the intention of misusing the information like name, hometown, pictures etc. available on MySpace websites. They may try to harvest more information about the members with the aim of intimidating or harassing the members. They pose a serious threat to the privacy of MySpace members and hence members should be careful with the personal information they post on their MySpace website, particularly as a public profile that can be viewed by all.

Why someone is not a member of MySpace?

Existing MySpace members may be wondering why everybody is not a member of MySpace. It provides a simple platform for friends and relatives to keep in touch and get to know each other better. But there are some who are not members simply because they do not have the time! MySpace membership can become addictive with people who join it constantly updating their profile, look at others’ profile, and search for new contacts who share common interest etc. For some other nonmembers, MySpace may contain objectionable content even though there are strict guidelines on what can be posted on MySpace. Some members may be breaking the rules by posting offensive material on the website sneakily while escaping the notice of MySpace administrators. Even the content that is permitted by MySpace may not be to the liking of all.