At today’s Teens and Technology Institute someone came up with the idea to have participants at the program post links to their My Space and/or blogging sites. So, if you have a My Space site or a blog that would be of interest to librarians serving teens add a comment here with the URL and any info. that you think would be of interest to those looking at the site. If there’s something from today’s programs that you think connects to your blog or My Space site mention it in your comment.
Thanks.
At Hennepin County Library, we have been using our MySpace account to learn how the community works, but we also see the potential of having a presence on MySpace. Using bulletins to push information to friends, linking to areas throughout our site, and having another venue where we get feedback are some of the positives. Our page can be viewed at: http://www.myspace.com/hennepincountylibrary
I am also curious about libraries in wiki, specifically Wikipedia. Does your library have an entry? Did your staff or community relations department submit it?
Since I talk about YA books at my blog, I htink some folks might want to know it is out there.
Teri Lesesne
http://www.livejournal.com/users/professornana
I am a writing teacher at Catholic High School in Spring Hill, Fl. I am going to try and have my students post a comment about My Space on this forum if it is possible. If this is allowed then hopefully their writing will appear below mine. If this works – enjoy their thoughts on blogging and My Space. I had them pick a side either My Space is good or bad for teens.
Myspace is a good thing for teenagers because kids get to express themselves. They get to have there own space so to speck. They can express what they are feeling. Kids can go and meet new friends. There also have been many people meeting on Myspace, then becoming married.
New advances in technology have provided us with access to the world. The internet has opened doors to unlimited information, and allows us to connect with people from around the world. But, the ability to communicate with strangers through a computer screen can be a dangerous thing for teenagers with no boundaries. Teen web logs, like MySpace, allow teenagers to post information about themselves, as well as to view other’s sites. Viewers of their sites can post comments about the site, and teens may use the Blog to meet other people. Myspace can be a bad thing for teenagers because it provides uncontrolled and unsupervised access to strangers with unknown pasts and motives. Teenagers can potentially meet dangerous individuals who do not have the best intentions.
Teenagers may join a weblog wishing to express themselves and connect with friends. MySpace can be used as a sort of online diary, where teens post their daily experiences, thoughts, and ideas – many even post pictures of themselves and friends. But, I think the fact that anyone in the world can view these sites slips people’s minds. Teenagers post information that is a little too personal, and allow people they don’t know to view it – undoubtedly, if these teens knew who was looking at their site, they wouldn’t post the same information.
MySpace does not have a real screening process, and there is not very much supervision of the comments posted, or of who is posting them. Young children can join MySpace by lying about their age, and older adults can view sites meant for other teenagers. There is no way to know who is on the other side of the screen – you cannot really know who you are communicating with. This person could be the teenager that they say they are, or they could be an adult pervert with ill intentions. Without supervision, teenagers post information that they shouldn’t, and, without a screening, people who shouldn’t see this information do.
MySpace could be a wonderful thing for teenagers wishing to express themselves, talk to friends, and meet new people. But, there is no supervision, no screening process, no boundaries, and no way of knowing who is on the other side of that screen. I don’t think people should stop using MySpace or anything – I just think that people, especially teenagers, should be more careful about what they write and who sees it.
I think that myspace is bad for teens and anyone of any age, becuase it might be fun and filled iwth excitment but their are many cautions that need to be noticed. Their are many people who take myspace to seriuos. myspace is bad for many reasons, one is that there are teens and people in general who expose themself in pics that are to revieling and they have personal information in which can lead to stalkers and others who ave their information that they had given out to the world. Yes, its fun becuase you can find friends from any where all over this world.But sometimes fun leads to trouble. i think that teens who have myspace are just looking for friends and fun but i think that adults who have myspace are looking for children, if an adult has that much time on his or her hand to make a myspace then there’s a problem.
My space
I believe that my space is a good thing but also a bad thing for teenagers for many reasons. But, lets go with why it’s a good thing. I believe that it’s a good thing because almost every child has one so it’s a nice way to communicate with your friends. Many people worry about the sexually predators that are out there, but if you don’t accept them as your friend or you don’t put up your full name and address then you would be fine. Nobody would be able to look you up if you don‘t have your full name up there because how are they supposed find you if no one really has that name anyways. For my space there are many ways to protect yourself from people like that if you really want to.
Well I have a my space website and I’m addicted to it so maybe that’s why I take this side. On mine I absolutely will not accept anyone as my friend if I don’t know who they are. I can honestly say that I have never met anyone on there just because I didn’t accept them if I didn’t know who it was. Before I accept anyone and I don’t recognize the photo, then I go to the page and look at who it is and if I know them then I accept them, but if I don’t then I won’t.
It really all depends on how protective you are about those kinds of things. If you just go on it to meet new people, then just be ready for anything. But if you’re smart, then you wouldn’t do that. My space is a nice and easy way to talk to your friends and yet have things that tell people things about you that they didn’t know before. It all depends on what you want them to know. If you don’t want them to know personal things then you don’t have to write them, but if you do then you have a place where you can write it at. At first my mom made it to where I couldn’t get onto my space because she thought that it was bad but then she researched it and asked my older brother that had one and everything about it so she unblocked it. And what I think is that if my mom will allow me to have it because she did research on what you can and can’t do, then it must not be all that bad.
If you watch what you are doing then it’s definitely not a bad thing. You just have to think smart and everything will be just fine.
Myspace is a good thing for teenagers because kids get to express themselves. They get to have their own space, so to speak. They can express what they are feeling. Kids can go and meet new friends. There also have been many people meeting on Myspace, then becoming married.
I think that my space is a good thing for teens because they can do a variety of things. They can put pictures of themselves on the site so that onther people can see what they look like. You can customize your won page so that it can be unique and original. Teens and talk to their friends as a form of communication other than aol or aim. Teens can put little things on the page such as profiles to let other teens know basic things about them. On top of those things you can do many more thins in myspace which makes it exciting and different and i think that contributes to it’s popularity.
My space is a bad thing for teenagers. There are way to many perverted people on the internet that can access private information about teens through my space accounts. Teens display their phone numbers, addresses, and pictures on their accounts. There have been multiple cases where rapes, and murders of teens were made possible by the information they gave out on the internet. It is simply not worth the risk to expose oneself on the internet in a manner as teens do on myspace.
MySpace is a bad thing for teenagers because of all the sexual predators that surf the site. Sexual predators find it easy to find their next victim because lots of MySpace users put their names, addresses, and even their after school plans on the site. There are also scenes of binge drinking, apparent drug use, and teens simulating sex. You have to be fourteen to have a MySpace even though lots of kids under the age of fourteen already have. They make themselves look older and put fake names on there like “Chesty Laroo” to attract attention. The pictures they have on the site just beg sexual predators to go after them.
My space is a bad thing for teenagers. There are way to many perverted people on the internet that can access private information about teens through my space accounts. Teens display their phone numbers, addresses, and pictures on their accounts. There have been multiple cases where rapes, and murders of teens were made possible by the information they gave out on the internet. It is simply not worth the risk to expose oneself on the internet in a manner as teens do on myspace.
MySpace
MySpace is an online environment that allows people of all ages to go online and in a sense, communicate with each other. The makers of MySpace say that people must be 14 or older to have a MySpace, but who will know the difference if you lie, right? Some kids are lying in order to get onto MySpace and nothing good can come out of this lying, no matter what. Also people who are above the age 14 and are into MySpace are almost completely obsessed with it. Overall, I think that MySpace is a bad thing for teenagers because they learn to lie to be accepted by other kids and if they are not lying, then they are spending too much time on it.
One thing that I notice about kids in our day and age is that they are way too fanatical about being in touch with each other. With our cell phones and IM’s and MySpaces, we constantly surround ourselves with means of communication. I think that this is kind of stupid because all people care about nowadays is what someone said to someone else and their reaction. Down to the core of the issue, I think that people just don’t want to be alone. They are obsessed with being able to say the right thing and they are almost never alone. I think that they should just relax and don’t worry about what other people think or say.
MySpace is another way for us kids to talk to each other. I think that one reason as to why we feel like we must talk to each other so much is peer pressure, and also because we cannot go out and have fun as easier as the generations before us have done. We are not allowed to go and hang out at the same place all the time anymore, so we create our places to meet up with each other on the computer. However, I still think that MySpace is a bad thing. There have been numerous reports of teenagers being hurt online. For instance, a young girl was raped and killed when she encountered a person that she met online. The person lied about their age saying that they were a young 16 year old kid when he was really a 40 year old pedophile. I do not want anything remotely close to that happening to me so I tend to stay away from IM’s and MySpace.
Overall, I think that there are good and bad parts to MySpace, but there are more bad than good. For this reason I think that MySpace and other such programs are bad for teenagers.
Although millions of teenagers have myspace accounts around the world, they still find time to talk on the phone and use IM to converse with their friends. Even though the site allows teens to include many pictures and detailed profiles about themselves, there is still a factor of dishonesty and sometimes deceptiveness. Kids spend hours on computers daily, doing various things, including talking with their friends, and, as teachers continuously hope, doing their homework. However some people tend to misuse the privilege of internet chatting. Myspace is a bad thing for teenagers because sometimes teens can succumb to dishonesty and fallacy and hours of meaningless time conversing with various people.
The list of sexual offenders/predators in the city of Tampa alone seems almost endless. The list for sexual offenders/predators in the nation must be pages and pages long, filled with mug shots and descriptive information about people who deceive and lie for a living. There are probably so many people on myspace that claim their age is younger and display flashy and catchy pictures of people that really are not them. And because myspace is only a place for people to read about others and view pictures, as well as comment and talk, there is no way to be sure that an 18 year old student really is not a 50 year old criminal. Because of teenagers’ young naivety and invincibility, many teens are faced with this problem as they spend months talking and “getting to know” new people. And when the “meeting time” comes, they are in even more grave danger. Sometimes teens just don’t think before they do something that could potentially change the rest of their lives.
Not only does the average teenager spend hours online each night, but the majority of these teens are not spending that time researching the latest information on possible cures for cancer. Nor are they looking up the winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Rather, they are talking with their friends, by any means possible, including myspace. If they aren’t talking using myspce, they are reading a new profile, blog, or comment listings, or even checking out the new pictures posted by the myspace page owner. Teenagers spend countless hours yearly online, and myspace only gives them another means to do what they have been doing so well for years.
My space is a bad influence for teenagers because it has no true meaning other then to give another thing for teenagers to waste time on. Teenagers are in the sphere of bad influence as they spend even more time on the computer when other things of more importance can be done. My space has no real value to the teens of today as it just gives another reason for teens to do something useless.
The problem with my space is that it just gives way to predators to view the prey and stock them. Teenagers need to do something better with their time then just mess around with some my space and have a reason not to work. Parents are the next main concern for my space; I do not believe that parents should be excluded by the actions of their children. In legal terms you can have the my space but I still think that parents should have a means to check their child’s actions. Parents should still have some hold over the reigns to the betterment of their children even in today’s technology society.
Teenagers do need time to themselves to socialize but my space is not the place for it to be done as sitting on a computer creating some site is not socialization.
MySpace is becoming an intricate part of life in today’s teen society. Being a teen myself, I have first hand knowledge of how this site is used to benefit teens. The reason I made my own MySpace account was because one of my friends told me about it. Immediately I became interested with the thought of finding old friends and meeting new ones.
Many people see MySpace as a detriment to the teen mind and say that we spend too much time on the computer because of this “national craze”. MySpace is a way to keep in contact with your friends and build better relationships. You can learn a lot about a person from their MySpace. MySpace is a quick and easy way to get the formalities out of the way and get to know the person.
Yes there has been some discrepancy about the fear of online predators, but the chances are slim and if you use the site properly you should not have any problems. I think MySpace is a great addition to teen’s personal lives.
i can not get on to myspace the computers will not let me!!:(
I would have to agree with everyone that thinks myspace is an important and good thing for teens. Sites like myspace are helping teens today to develop certain skills which are very important, from communication skills, to writing and reading skills, not to mention skills that are becoming more and more important for future jobs. I do not deny that it can be dangerous due to sexual predators lurking on the site. The unfortunate fact of life however is that sexual predators will lurk wherever their prey are present. Myspace is an example, but so are schools, churches, chatrooms, libraries, parks, etc… The only way to protect kids is to teach them about how to avoid those situations otherwise they would never be able to interact with anyone, anywhere for fear of predators. Instruction is the key not isolation. My last comment is in regard to one or two previous comments that mentioned adults on myspace have to much time on their hands and see that as a problem. There is nothing wrong or weird about adults being on myspace. I have to accounts and I use them for the same reason teens do. It helps me keep up with friends I dont live near, keep track of bands I like or learn about up and coming ones, find new people that are intersted in the same things i am, and participate in discussion groups about things that I find interesting like books, music, or sports. I even have a second account as a young adult librarian that i use to keep up with authors and other librarians as well as teens in my library.
Myspace is an amazing tool with spectacular potential for teens, children, and adults. While there are dangers, the good outways the bad, and instruction as to how to use it safely is the only answer to those dangers.
Oh yeah, I forgot to add a link to my myspace so here it is. This is the professional one, which I use to keep in touch with authors, librarians, teens from the library, etc…
http://www.myspace.com/joshlibrarian
I personally agree that my space can be very fun for teens. I think that parents really need to monitor what is going on when their kids have acess to these kinds of sites. The my space pages that I have seen are sometimes vert vogur and I myelf find them to be inappropriate.
I agree that myspace can be dangerous for teens as well