For years I’ve held off opening up, or rather creating a MySpace account[1] purely for reasons to prevent exploiting myself or others.

However, I came to the realization that when you look past the negative aspects and focus instead on the positive outcome of reconnecting with people that you might have lost touch with, well then it doesn’t seem so bad.

In fact, it’s safe to say that despite the countless amount of good and bad press, which any good journalist or sane person would tell you is just effortless advertising, there are a lot of interesting outcomes that occur when you set up your own space on the web.

To me, MySpace is a messy combination of personal journal and media, mixed together with self expression and sometimes self reflection. If one were to attempt to map Myspace it would probably be neither here nor there.

Frankly, it’s a phenomenon that would sound wonderful on paper or pitched to in front of a group of investors, but in it of itself it’s like a swap meet of individuals coming from various social, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds on display for the world to see, a messy one at that.

It’s also a potentially dangerous breeding ground for stalkers, but that light has already been shone many times by the media and it’s not worth revisiting that hazard since it steers the purpose of this article in another direction.

Back on topic, it’s worth noting that within 3 days of activating an account on MySpace — as well as making it pretty thanks to Mike Davidson’s Hacking a More Tasteful Myspace — I’ve reconnected with people that I lost touch with 4 to 5 years ago and that alone is remarkable considering I felt it’d be difficult to do so otherwise.

The thought of contacting and reconnecting with people from my past, the majority of them from high school, has always been in the back of my mind, but the conversation starter, for example; “How I’d approach the person or begin the conversation” always seemed a bit difficult. Also, there never really seems like a good moment to do so and the notion that it might be awkward as such can make what would otherwise seem appropriate and good willed turn into something contrived or put on.

Sad to say, but Myspace has allowed me to jump right in and test the waters. To show friends from my past that I really do care despite the lack of communication. For that, I can forgive the site for being a mess from a functionality standpoint and instead remained focused on sifting through the vast resource of individuals and egnited friendships from yesteryear.

Footnote reference:

  1. kartooner on Myspace - View my profile on MySpace ↩