Exploring MySpace at 40
Thanks for visiting Turning 40! If you're new here, please take a moment to share your experience of Turning 40 and subscribe to my RSS feed.
Are You Turning 40 and Looking for a Profound Life Change?
Have a great day!
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But can you teach it new technology? That’s a question I asked myself as I thought about some new year’s resolutions. Sure, there’s the obligatory goals of exercising, losing weight, eating better and so on. But, I want to do something new this year. I want to do something different.
After turning 40 in August, it’s amazing what that number (40) can do to a man’s psyche. Feeling like I’m losing touch with this ‘younger’ generation, I have decided to explore an Internet phenomenon that is sweeping through our youthful society — MySpace.
Before delving into the abyss of the MySpace unknown, I have to admit my preconceived notions about it.
The myth of MySpace has always been conveyed to me as something dirty or secretive — a sort of vice or underground venue for hooking up with someone.
Maybe it’s Brad Paisley’s song “Online” that has served as an inspiration or spurred my curiosity. His depiction of a relatively average guy becoming somewhat superhuman on MySpace is hilarious. Does that really happen?
On the flip side, MySpace has been a home for wackos like the college student who was responsible for the massacre at Virginia Tech. It seems like a lot of crimes that have been committed were first predicted on MySpace.
Surely there is more to this online sensation than just wackos and hookups. Surely MySpace is more than a Pandora’s Box of Internet sin.
To explore the unkown, I decided to boldly go where this 40-year-old family man has never gone before — MySpace.
Upon logging in, I quickly realized this a whole new world of personalized communication. It’s an interactive network that links the past to the present to the future. Everything you want to know about someone — their interests, what they watch on TV, what type of music they listen to, what books they read, where they live or where they went to school — is all encapsulated on a Web page that you personally create. Each person’s page is a reflection of that individual whether it is laden with photos, videos or blogs. Some people display more information than others. It’s all relative to what you want people to know about you.
So, who is on MySpace? A lot of people.
What I found is that MySpace has a younger appeal. In a search created for men and women within 10 miles of the 38501 (Cookeville) zip code, there were 3,586 people on MySpace between the ages of 18 and 24. That broke down to 1,766 people between the ages of 18 and 20 and 1,820 people between the ages of 21 and 24.
The astonishing number to me was that over the age of 25, there were just 3,011 people locally on MySpace. As the age increased, the numbers decreased. There were 1,768 people between the ages of 25 and 35, and 798 between the ages of 36 and 45. From 46 to 55, there were 332 people and just 113 over the age of 56.
While I was searching for local statistics, someone found me. One of my long-lost fraternity buddies “The Sloth” found my page and sent me a message. We hadn’t communicated with each other in almost 15 years but in a matter of minutes I was able to catch up on my SAE brothers.
Inspired by “The Sloth,” I decided to try to look up some old high school classmates. In a matter of minutes, I found a friend I had homeroom with in junior high and high school but hadn’t seen since graduation in 1985. It was great to relive the past.
Feeling somewhat nostalgic, I’m now on a kick to find even more people I went to school with.
Meanwhile, I’d like to hear from our readers about their MySpace experiences. My column next week will focus on the people of MySpace.
Email your MySpace story to me or log on to myspace.com/therealbuddypearson and let me know what you think of MySpace. But keep in mind, no hookups or wackos!
Buddy Pearson is the managing editor of the Herald-Citizen.
Loading ...
1 Trackback(s)