The Death of Myspace

In the time that I have discovered the internet there has been leaps and bounds in its technological advances. E-mail, chatting, online dating, file sharing, etc. The list of advancements seems to grow daily. One of those advancements that I had really come to enjoy was myspace.

Myspace is currently sweeping the nation as the new "get-together" meeting place of friends and family and the like. You can share pictures, write blogs, write comments to other users, send IM's, and pretty much everything else that would entail running your own website.

To me, I have felt that myspace was truly great and truly addicting. It is like "drugs for straight people" as someone once put it to me.

In a previous blog, which I had posted on myspace, I discussed the ramifications of technological advancements on your social life. In short, your passwords. Many people involved in a relationship share their passwords to various accounts, feeling that they have nothing to hide. Such is the case with myself. I have shared everything with my wife, partly out of trust and partly out of ease.

Being in the military, my wife needs my passwords in the event that I'm not around to take care of what needs to be taken care of. She is the passwordmaster in that sense.

Now, I'm not the only person that does this. In fact, there are many people out there that don't trust their significant others and break into these accounts, by way of finding these passwords or from the other, less sneaky person, leaving their accounts up.

Herein lies the problem. In my messages between some people of the opposite sex the context has been misconstrued and has created a drama I never thought I'd have to live through. Comments that would never be brought to light with the exception of the two people communicating are now spied on and scrutinized and made out to be something they're not.

We live in a world where the more and more we communicate, the more and more we lose our identities. I think that technology is great and advancements have made my life easier in many ways. But they have also made my life more difficult.

If off-hand comments or private messages are too be intercepted and shown to whomever can get their eyes on them, then what kind of identity can we ever have? We will always be playacting so as not to get the real message accross or cut short from entertaining something that is harmless but deadly to someone else. We are getting lost in our bold world of achievement and ease.

So, what is the solution to my ramblings? Am I obviously in an emotional state? you bet your ass I am. I am supremely disappointed in how this has affected me. But, I don't have a solution. My solution today has been to delete my myspace account. I don't need the drama.

And it breaks my heart. Not because of myspace itself. I've lived without it before and I shall again. What kills me is that I was basically forced to delete something that I enjoyed all because of jealousy and mistrust.

The full story will rest with me and die with me. It's not that interesting anyway. My message is thus; mind your passwords. Mind your privacy. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, there is most likely always someone watching.