Destroying Society for the Future

[Sup3rkirby]

I might regret posting such a sensitive topic here, but it must be done.

Of my two choices here, which one(in you opinion obviously) is destroying the society of tomorrow? Of course explain yourself and such with a nice post.


I will start by saying while both are a problem, Facebook is truly the desctruction of the generations that are coming up now. Essentially, you had one huge social networking site(myspace), but facebook is essentially the same, only more focused on you(yay arrogance and self admiration!). Most of you who know the troubles will understand. Not that myspace is good, but facebook is surely beating it in that market(of useless life skills and time wasting, as well as a few other things).


And one thing I've always thought is that if you want a place to talk about yourself, get input from other users, have pictures of yourself up and blog(plus more), why not just get a website? You get much more customization and now days it is not only free but easier than ever to do all this and make it look nice. But for some reason having one page that is strictly customizable with noticable limits and ugly ads is more appealing that a full website with unlimited customization and addons, etc. etc.

[ryoko126]

I'd have to say Myspace. I'm not familiar with Facebook but Myspace is a great way to get yourself kidnapped or killed, if your not very bright or only 12. Yes they let little kids have Myspace accounts. That's not a good thing. Predators can lie about their ages to get good with kids and teens to trust them, and stuff. And I'm sure you all have seen the news about kids getting killed thanks to it.

However, you are very right. If you want to do things like talk about yourself. Get a blogger account. You don't have "friends" lists or anything like that.

[DefecTalisman]

This is like saying to people rather build your own computer, its easier than ever nowadays and you can customize it. People just dont have the time or know how. Yet I agree that both these social sites are a down fall to society these days. I watch my girlfriend using facebook and she is like a kid again. Such a small app. that does something as silly as send a punch or pinch makes her giggle.
These services tend to take people away from the search engines and funel them in to this set in stone way of using the net. They are very self centered services. They dont inform the users of the security risks of putting up all your details and history, oh, dont forget the pics that can be used to identify you. If the person looking for you cant find you physically then they could go through one of your family that you put up there or target a friend.

Comparing the 2 (Facecock and My****):
Facbook is bland and has so little customization. There is so little personalization that it bores me.
MySpace has the ability to be what ever you want it to be, there are thousands of themes out there for it. This leads to every ones space being different and also to seriuosly long loading times. Also along with this comes security risks and hacking of spaces.

All in all I agree that a personal website is better in that it would be more unique and personal, but people always are looking for the easy way out.

[ryoko126]

MySpace has the ability to be what ever you want it to be, there are thousands of themes out there for it. This leads to every ones space being different and also to seriuosly long loading times. Also along with this comes security risks and hacking of spaces.

If you think loading times on Myspace is bad. IMVU will actually crash my browser, it takes so long for my computer to load it, so I refuse to visit, even my friend's links.

[robhol]

Both aren't good, IMO, but they won't "Destroy Society," that's just plain exaggerated. If parents dont want their kids kidnapped/killed, they just have to make sure that kids aren't meeting any of their "new friends".
Also, while selfishness and egotism is obviously not a good thing, it will not "destroy society". Egotism existed before online communities, or for that matter, the wheel. It's just become more visible, as more people "meet" on the Net.

[DefecTalisman]

I would say it is more common now though. Having things that make things easier tends towards more use of that thing. eg in context to the net and egotistical people:
Net makes it easier to make yourself look good therfore more people do it, thus more egotistical people.

[Sup3rkirby]

I'll start with DefectTalisman. Ok, it isn't really like making a computer from scratch here. There are more tools and templates for websites and such than myspace. You can spend 10 minutes tops designing a very nice website using templates and the various editors out there, many of which are drag and drop. Someone with no knowledge of the web could create a website that would look just as good as a myspace page, it really takes no effort, and now days, very little time.

robhol, you seem to realize the egotism these types of 'services' bring out, but i don't think you see how it could become a problem.

While this has been around for centuries, you must understand that where as 100 years ago not half the population under 25 would be egotistical or self centered. I don't mean the world will blow up or we'll have some major catastrophe, but the fact is things like this start off by helping kids develop skills that are not only bad to have, but are considered problems. Myspace and Facebook, as Defect said, can make older teens or even adults act like kids. The problem is in the numbers of people who begin to develop poor personality traits and characteristics. I'm sorry but even though most bosses can be a**es, I would much rather have one of those than a leading staff who are all pretty self centered, stuck up, jerks and to top it all off, act like 10 year olds a good bit of the time.

These services make real life like 'The O.C.' a lot of times. Turning lives into these drama filled 'shows'. Each generation that grows up around these things is gradually worse. You see less repect in each one. Egotism has been around for ever, but it has never had the rocket fuel of Myspace and Facebook to help spread it around like a virus so the world can enjoy it. If everyone is egotistical, then it becomes a serious problem. Not litterally 'destroying the world', but surely leading to some major problems in soceity.

[ryoko126]

And for that well thought out response I will donate 50 credits to you Sup3rkirby. But it's not only Myspace And Facebook that is dangerous. Chatrooms are a major concern for me. I let my cousin, who was 15 at the time, use my computer and when I checked up on her, she was "chatting up" a man well over 35 saying she was a 20 something... I was NOT a happy camper, to say the least...

[DefecTalisman]

@Sup3rkirby: That is true, you can make a web page easily, just like you could slap in a graphics card on you desktop PC. But knowing what you are adding and the effects of it, its specifications, its technology is all a different story.
How many people go out and buy a graphics card and get home to find that it doesnt fit properly?
The thing I am getting at is, yes anyone can make a web page/blog/my space. But do they know what they have done, how it was done and the repocutions of what has been done?
To know this they need time and passion, thus people take the easy road and use "tools" to do it. This creates more of a market for these tools and then eventually everyone goes the easy way and nobody does it the propper old fashioned way.

[Spartan Erik]

Honestly it's the media/Hollywood stereotypes that are destroying society, but I can see how you can connect these dots. Myspace won't destroy society persay, but hey it is worse than Facebook!