Another look at the MySpace quandary
Editorial JJ Ossola
According to my last editorial, we should all be familiar with our classmates by now. Usually it is a little easier when we sit next to people we have always known either from classes past or present. Our lives are enriched by the people we surround ourselves with, but what if your friends went off to college?
They decided to spend a little more money than you and went off to some four-year downstate. Sure, you have your current friends, your boy or girl friend, your classmates and your family, but you shouldn’t let your downstate friends forget about you! I can tell you from personal experience that you might start the year off with 10 friends but if you only talk to three of them the others will slowly drift away.
You don’t have to run up a huge cell phone bill or constantly send off e-mails or text messages to stay in touch. You could just use MySpace to find out who’s in their friend list, what they have been thinking about in their blog’s or messages, or look at their pictures while listening to music they picked out. They don’t have to be “online” for you to feel like you are catching up. The downside is that you will not have the luxury of the high speeds that the college boasts; you have to do it from home.
IVCC has blocked “MySpace” for no other reason than it is a “bandwidth hog.” Well, with MySpace’s over 114 million users, I could see that. When I called IT to ask about it, I also asked what other sites were blocked. I didn’t get an answer to that. So I checked out some other non-educational sites that might be considered suspect.
Let’s just say that you can still shop (eBay, Amazon) play poker (Bodog, Pokerstars) and watch videos (You Tube, MTv.) There are still a variety of social networking sites available unblocked, but if all your friends are on MySpace good luck getting them to switch.
There should at least be one lab where you can access MySpace. The site’s popularity is more to blame than the bandwidth it is using up. For the sake of your downstate friends, ask your IT department to let you catch up on campus.