Hot Christmas Gifts for Teens Addicted to MySpace

You can cut off the cable, rip out the phone lines, and smash the computer. It won't matter to a teen addicted to MySpace. Their love for Tom is stronger than that. They will find a way back to all of their 896 friends somehow. So just forget about bribing them away from MySpace with that 60 inch plasma screen TV this Christmas. Accept reality and buy one of these hot Christmas gifts instead. You can always contemplate internet rehab next year.

If your teen is addicted to MySpace, then I have a sneaky suspicion they already have a computer. But do they have a computer that offers them a 24-7 MySpace fix?

If not, the Dell XPS M2010 with wi-fi is a potentially hot Christmas gift for your teen. This powerful laptop is a perfect compromise; you get them out of the house, but they still have access to MySpace. The Dell M2010 laptop also offers a great viewing screen and high definition sound to enhance their MySpace video and music experience. Its starting price is $2,499 (www.dell.com).

Whether you plan to hook your teen up this Christmas with a wi-fi laptop, or if they are already own the goods, they'll need to know where the wi-fi hotspots are located. Sure, they could just check their computer or read the sign posted with "Wi-Fi Hotspot Here", but where is the fun in that? Let them have fun with this hot Christmas gift: a Wi-Fi Detector Shirt. It is a battery operated shirt that lights up to alert them of a wi-fi signal. They can be purchased online via Think Geek for $29.99 (www.thinkgeek.com)

Maybe, though, you have already invested in a decent desktop or your teen isn't big on lugging around a laptop. No worries; the Helio Ocean is a hot Christmas gift for teens addicted to MySpace. It is a dual-slider cell phone that offers mobile MySpace. Currently, Helio has the Ocean at a special offer price of $199 with unlimited minutes at $99 per month. For more information on their membership plans, please visit the official Helio website (www.helio.com).

Now that we have your little MySpace junkie completely connected, it is time to think about the basics they need covered this Christmas.

Visuals are a basic, but important aspect of MySpace. Every teen addicted to MySpace should have a cool digital camera such as the Casio Exilim 8.1 MP. This hot Christmas gift features an 8.1 megapixel CCD, face recognition, antishake stabilization, 3x optical zoom, and 39 shot modes. The camera is easy to use and small enough for your teen to carry around with them. It also includes a YouTube mode for capturing video. And if your teen is addicted to MySpace, there's a good chance YouTube is part of their habit as well. You can find this digital camera, in either black or red, online at Best Buy for $249 (www.bestbuy.com).

If your teen seems more interested in capturing videos than photos, you might want to opt for a video camera such as the Flip Ultra instead. This hot Christmas gift is a fairly small, simple camcorder available for a reasonable price ($179). The camcorder connects to a USB port and video can then be published directly online. (www.theflip.com)

Just as important as the visuals your teen shares with their friends is the image they present of themselves with their MySpace layout. There are layouts, icons, and design software already available to your teen free online. So due to its price ($649), this next hot Christmas gift is intended for those kids who have a real interest in design or photography. The hot Christmas gift I'm referring to is Adobe Photoshop CS3. This software will allow them to create their own layouts, animated icons, special photos, and any other graphics they want to use on MySpace. (www.adobe.com)

If you're uncertain how interested they are in design, you might rather first buy them a book like Hacking MySpace: Mods and Customizations to make MySpace your Space. This hot Christmas gift is priced at $16.49 on Amazon (www.amazon.com).

Should you be looking for a hot Christmas gift with a more flexible price range, iTunes Gift Cards usually make good gifts. They come in increments of $15, $25, and $50 and can be found in a variety of stores. And with this hot Christmas gift, next time your teen discovers a cool new band off MySpace, they can quickly satisfy their urge to download their new favorite song. (www.apple.com/itunes)

And finally, MySpace T-Shirts are a hot Christmas gift for your teen to show off their MySpace love. Most MySpace T-Shirts have cheeky sayings such as "you looked better on the MySpace" or "everyone loves a MySpace addict". Cafe Press is a good place online to do your Christmas shopping for MySpace T-Shirts. (www.cafepress.com)