MySpace is a Window into the Minds and Lives of Our Teens

MySpace is a cyber mall where teenagers hang out with each other. It's a place where sexual predators hunt for vulnerable teens, and there are a lot of them on MySpace. It's also a place where the police go to hunt down predators.

One of the more important but neglected aspects of MySpace, however, is that it is a window into the minds of our teenagers. Instead of the usual yes, no, I dunno or grunt when responding to parent's questions, on MySpace teens are positively logorrheic. This gives parents, educators, sociologists, psychologists and anyone else concerned about young people today an unprecedented opportunity to find out what our teens are thinking and what they are doing.

Recently, I took a look inside a local high school via MySpace. I was surprised at what I found. I was not looking for anything in particular. I was simply interested in what students were writing about themselves and others. The excerpts below are not exceptions but are representative of the majority of MySpace profiles I found for students at this particular high school. Obviously, I have not edited them for the many grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. Nor have I edited out the foul language. In the following paragraph, one of the students describes himself.

"Im awesome... Umm i like to hang out with friends and i hate Fat people, Skanks, Sluts, Hores, Bitches, Losers, skumbags, perverts, wiggers, fake people, goths, ugly people, stupid people, retards, jerks, immature people. im a very nice person... unless i hate you... But i love ducks... "

Another student describes her heroes.

"HERO'S well myself and Brittny and squashA........ because we are all gonna kick the shit out of ewwwwy gothic freaky pieces of crap Omg i hate gothic people they annoy the crap out of me omg i wish they would all die like they all say they want to PATHETIC people omg it's pissing me off to no end so i have to stop talking about them before i walk to this bitchs house and kill her KK bye......."

Because I have such an interest in books, I couldn't help pass on the following comments that some students made about reading.

"Books: i do not read who does theese days*hehe*"

"Books: come on now... this is Bg your talkin about.... I read See Spot Run..."

"Books: don't really readd:o)"

Just how serious should we take what students are saying on MySpace. Certainly, they seem to talk with a freedom that they don't when around adults. But on the other hand, I sense a lot of the bragging and posturing that went on when I was hanging out with other teens in the late 60s and early 70s.

In any event, if you are a parent or grandparent, and you have never taken a look at MySpace, you really should.

If you are a sociology, psychology or education major in college, you probably have already looked at MySpace. If so, I would suggest looking at it again, with different eyes. You might find material for a master's thesis or your doctoral dissertation.