Saturday, April 29, 2006

My Space

I just had a friend invite me to join myspace.com. I have to admit, I am a little 'on the fence' about it. While I think it would be a neat way to meet people, I am shocked and horrified by the amount of information people reveal about themselves. I realize that anyone determined enough could probably dig up all that stuff anyway, but why make it any easier? I guess I don't want to end up as the lead character in a Lifetime movie.

I am paranoid because I had a mild experience with identity theft a couple of years ago. Although I say it was a mild experience, it was a NIGHTMARE. I am still afraid to try to write a check in Bruno's because I am terrified that their computer will reject it (even though I have NEVER bounced a check there - someone did in my name...). I think that is the only place left that I am still afraid to write checks. Even though I presented them with a copy of police reports and signed affidavits from the bank - I was still humiliated the last time I tried to write a check and the manager came out and told me I couldn't. I can't remember how long I carried copies of the police report and the letter from the bank around with me - fearful that I might need proof in case they tried to arrest me for something someone else did.

Another thing about myspace is all the distractions. My blog is all about writing. I feel called by God to write. I've been doing the "Jonah" for quite a while now - and I am finally trying to get myself in line with God's call. I am a creative junky. When I get on the computer, I lose all sense of time - especially when I am doing something creative. I'm afraid that I will become so distracted by all the links, pictures, questions, backgrounds, songs, etc that I will lose focus on the whole reason I am on-line anyway. I stay so busy with other things that even finding time to blog is difficult.

I'm not saying that I will never create a myspace page - but for now I must graciously decline.

2 comments:

Lisa said...

I understand your feelings about the whole security issue. I try to be really cautious on things that I publish on the internet--the last thing I need is some stalker!

I mainly set up a myspace account to see if I'd come across any old college pals (don't really care about high school, except for Jon O.!). My intuition is that after about a month, the novelty of myspace will wear off and I'll stop playing around with it or delete it altogether.

Speaking of publishing, though, let's get together soon to work out our blog idea!

Eric Gwin said...

I think MySpace is great if you're a musician or an artist who is looking to connect with people as listeners or fans (someone like me, for example!), but I totally agree with you: Blogging is more where you belong, Al.

Your gift is in the written word, which is much easier to find and enjoy here rather than on MySpace. Too many distractions there!