Libraries, Love, Friendship, and Fun

First off, the Salt Lake City Public Library is one of the best I've ever been to. I think very seriously about moving/living in a huge city for that reason alone. I'm a library fiend!

Now, the rest of this post will be devoted to why I think MySpace is worse than it is good.


Now, some (or most, if the numbers don't lie) of you will disagree with me and say, "But MySpace is so wonderful! I have a great time on there talking to all those wonderful people! You're just mad because you only have (now, I have no idea what the number is, so I'll check... ahhhh) 18 firends!"

Well, yes and no. First of, I do have 18 friends, now let me go look through them so I can tell you how many of those I've talked to in the last month (that I can remember). Five. Five out of eighteen friends.

One of those I'm related to.

That's not very many. I will make a suggestion that the percentage of "friends" that everyone else has is a whole lot smaller. I would venture a guess that those who have friends in the hundreds contact friends in the single digits. If you take those five that I've talked to in the past month, and pull out the ones I've talked to in the past seven days, you have three people. Not very many, eh? And if you notice, the youngest "friend" of mine is (in reality) 16. She's related to me, my cousin.

Now, here's the counter argument to that - "But you have hundreds of people on your combined buddy lists! What's the difference??"

The difference is that I actually had to talk to them at one point. And if I choose not to tell them anything about me, they don't know anything. They don't know what I look like, they don't know where I live or anything else about me. They don't have to know my name, or my siblings or parents or anything, other than whatever we talk about.

Of course there are pros and cons to that, but nowhere near that of MS.

I suppose what it could boil down to is something that I inherently dislike to no end.

In the beginning of time (or maybe it's around when I was... I don't know, really... actually it probably was near the beginning of time for me), I had an inherent knowledge that everyone was people. When I began to enter into the fullness of mine age (read, puberty time, baby!), I began to notice girls, and unbeknownst to me, they noticed me as well. There was, however, a slight problem.

Forasmuch as I knew of their inherent worth as a daughter of Heavenly Father, and not merely an object for my physical gratification, I tended to treat them as such. Of course I have mine regrets about a certain number of population, but for the most part, I did rather good - especially when I was interested in them. Even more so when they had a low opinion of themselves. I suppose I took it to myself that it should be some good thing, if I were to make known unto them their true nature. And such I did.

When I talked to girls who were sad and lonely, who thought they had no worth, I could bring a ray of sunshine to their lives. And verily, I cared for them and who they were. It hurt me then, as it hurts me today, when I see guys treating their girls as objects to behold, rather than the being that they are.

Either the girls have not seen or they have not understood mine actions, for verily, they did all disdain me in favour of another. Most usually another sometime in the future. More specifically, I was worse than having nothing.

I'm not going to get into the me part of this, though it would be quite entertaining. No, instead I'll tell you about what the heck this has to do with MySpace.

MySpace is objectification at it's best. Or worse, whichever way that you look at it. I would be unsurprised if I was one out of the sea of millions who feels the same way I do. Perhaps there might be ten others... and I know there are some good groups on MySpace... but truly it's like having a healthy hand in a body that all major organs are clutched with cancer.

The objectification is thus that you are not a person to these... "friend collectors". You are a trading card. Your stats, photos, and videos, are what impresses them so much. Simply a video game to spend the time in between classes or whatever. You're not even a Pokeymans (yes I know that's not how it's spelled)! Heck, even Magic: The Gathering, is better than you on MS.

Why, exactly, is this? Because, Dear Reader, Pokemon and M:TG were designed for such a life. You were not. You are much more than that. Regardless of your religious belief (I can walk you through it in a philosophical sense, if you'd like. Give me a belief and some background, and I'll tell you how it works, unless you simply have a religious belief that you are nothing more than a trading card, in which case you're wrong, and you do know it.), you are much more than a trading card.

Those are my philosophical reasons to hate MS, but I do have one more reason. Two, really. Or rather it has a dual purpose, one philosophical, the other purely... well, I suppose to me it's mainly philosophical.

The layouts! My goodness! 99% of every MS page I see makes me want to create violent works of art with the author! In order to violate web sense, good design practice, humanity, and talent in such a manner requires first the sacrifice of millions of jews, help in the ethnic cleansing of Darfur and Kosovo, and the intentional destruction of a train full of dying babies!

The absolute inhumanity involved in the creation of these pages cannot be described with mere words! It's no wonder than so many people are depressed today! When I go to MS and see the sites people have "customized", I want to kill myself too! I wish for eyebleach almost every site I visit!

Seriously folks, that's some messed up "design".

But in all seriousness, I do believe that there are problems with it. I'd love to do a study to see if myspace really does make people feel depressed.

But I do know you're objectified. Really. Also, I know those guys who are your "friends" don't care about you at all, they just want to use your body.

I think that's what hurts me the most about anything is how blind, or uncaring, all these girls are. I care so much for all of these girls I know and I want their happiness. I don't want them to be used and objectified. If you happen to be a girl and reading this is (I bet all of you are, actually), I don't want YOU to be objectified.

So seriously... hate objectification, and avoid places that you are.

Please?