My new MySpace Page

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen Dec 8, 2006

My students assured me that at 36 years old, I am not too old for MySpace. So curiosity got the best of me, and I now have my own MySpace page. You can check it out if you want, but it's not the least bit impressive. However, I've had the page for two days and I already have sixteen whole friends. Woo-hoo! And I found out that my cousin Terry has a MySpace page, and she's twenty years older than me, so I guess I'm not too old.

I've been poking around the MySpace pages of my sixteen friends (including my cousin Terry, of course) and I find myself fascinated by the phenomenon of interpersonal communication on MySpace. There's so much drama on MySpace and Facebook! I can't believe how much drama people are willing to post about their lives on these pages, where anyone can read it and join a drama queen flame war. One of my sixteen friends showed me the MySpace page of her boyfriend's ex, who apparently is not quite over him and has been posting brokenhearted tales of her heartbreak all over her page. My friend is irked, to say the least.

Although I would have loved a MySpace or Facebook page when I was in college, it's a good thing I didn't have one. I was such a drama queen, and I can only imagine the tales of heartbreak and woe I would have spewed out for the universe to read! My page would have contained all the cheesy poems I wrote for the various unworthy men who "wronged" me, as well as diatribes about the dorm drama of the week. Freshman year, perhaps I would have taken the picture of my ex-boyfriend that I marked with a big black X and posted it on my page (along with a cheesy poem, no doubt). And perhaps I would have told the whole world about the creepy student government guy I dated who dumped me on Valentine's Day, or about the guy I dated that my friends and I named Astral Projection Man, who informed me that he was reincarnated and had been in love with a girl I knew for many, many lifetimes.

Oh wait. I did just tell the whole world about them, didn't I? What can I say? I'm guess I'm still kind of a drama queen. (Although I won't be posting any pictures of ex-boyfriends with big black X's here). I must say that overall, I like being 36 years old better than I liked being 20. Boring is better than drama. The only drama in my life these days are the 2 a.m. debates with my husband over who's going to get up and console the sleep-resistant baby.

But seriously, students. Take it from a former college drama queen, and resist the urge to post your drama all over your MySpace and Facebook pages. Venting to the world will feel good, and it's entirely likely that the individual about whom you are venting deserves public humiliation. But one day you are going to wake up and die of embarassment and wish with all your being that you hadn't posted your most vulnerable feelings out there for everyone to read, especially your ex. Save the venting for a night with your friends and a pint of Ben & Jerry's, and don't give the people who don't like you the satisfaction of seeing you at your worst.