Daddy would you like some sausage? Daddy would you like some sau-sages?

Originally posted on MySpace...

Does this thing really work (journal entries on MySpace)? Does anyone actually read others' journal postings? I know LiveJournal is popular, but do people actually read that? It's so exciting to go on MySpace/Friendster and create these profiles that can be completely false, or painfully honest. We LIKE collecting comments and compliments from our friends; we LIKE collecting 'friends' who are really just collecting us; we like talking about ourselves like I am right now, and making our profiles reflect how funny/real/stupid/dramatic/angst-ridden/pretentious we are; we like to make ourselves feel better by sharing who we are. Is that it? Is that what this is all about? I know some people just use these sites as ways to push their bands or their websites or their DJing gigs (guilty as charged), but are the rest of us really on here because we have a hard time meeting people? Or, is it possible that the rest of us are all on here because we're tired of just meeting people at the bar? I know I'm tired of it. Work in a popular bar for a few years, watching drunken morons hit on disinterested women, and you'll get jaded real quick. It seems like using these portals to meet people is a bad idea, though. I want to say it’s lazy, but that's not quite right. We put a lot of work into our profiles so that we'll get noticed. I think the bad part is that it makes it too easy to get to know someone purely throw the 1s and 0s of the information age. We need to actually see each other to really know who we are. I could be lying about everything on my profile, but you won't know it unless you talk to me face-to-face. I think these sites also proliferate social dysfunction. If you find out everything there is to know about someone (or at least all they want to tell you) through email and MySpace and messaging, what is there to talk about in person? I guess my issue has less to do with MySpace and Friendster specifically, and more to do with how easy people find it to use electronic means to get to know each other instead of talking in person (myself included). We are becoming so fucking isolated and scared as a society. Marshall McLuhan is spinning in his grave right now, laughing his ass off!

We don't want the girl we like to know that we're actually only 5'6". We don't want her to see that we are real quiet in person, or that we're jekyll and hyde when drinking. She probably thinks she's overweight (which is usually totally untrue), and doesn't want you to see that. She also probably doesn't want you to think that she's boring (again, also usually not true) and has a hard time opening up to people. And, best of all, she probably doesn't want you to see that she doesn't have the ten tattoos and naughty piercings that she mentions on her profile. And, hell, it's not just the women, it's the men, too. I'm guilty. A friend once told me that a romance can't exist (or be nurtured in my opinion) via messaging and email. She's totally right. This is all purely hypothetical, but it seems like its what's happening. There's my socio-cultural diatribe for the day. End rant.

J