Well this doesn't happen often.
DJ Dave Diddy McBobo and I almost sort of agree on something. His latest column discusses MySpace, and while my eyes tend to gloss over whenever Brooks opines on social issues, so in other words every Brooks column, I think he hits on a few real points.
Some sociologists worry that we're bowling alone, but these sites (MySpace has 20 million visitors a month) are all about community. They're commonly used by people in the new stage of life that's been created over the past few decades. They are in their early to mid-20's; they're out of school but have no expectation they should marry soon. They're highly mobile, half-teen/half-adult, looking for a life plan and in between the formal networks of school, career and family.
So they bond online with an almost desperate enthusiasm. The Web pages they create are part dorm-room wall, part bulletin board, part young person's society page. They post photos of favorite celebrities, dirty postcards and music videos. And there are tons of chug-and-grins: photos of the gang gripping beers at a bar, photos of the tribe chugging vodka on the beach, photos of the posse doing shots at an apartment. Scroll down the page and there are people falling over each other, beaming and mugging for the camera phone.
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On most Web pages, there's a chance to list your favorite TV shows and books. And while the TV lists are long ("The OC," "Desperate Housewives," "Nip/Tuck," etc.) many of the book lists will make publishers suicidal: "Books! Ha! Me! What a joke! ... I think reading's ridiculous. ... I don't finish books very often but I'm attempting 'Smart Women Finish Rich.'... This is what I have to say about books (next to an icon of Bart Simpson's rear end)."
The idea on these sites is to show you're a purebred party animal, which leaves us fogies with two ways to see MySpace.
The two ways boil down to little more than "good" and "bad." Now, take out McBobo's uneasiness with the raunch/sex factor on these sites. He's free to worry about it, but personally I don't give a shit. But here are some points that I agree with.
1) MySpace and sites like them - friendster, facebook, etc. - encourage some people to portray themselves as "purebred party animal[s]." Brooks finds it disturbing, but I just find it lame. I feel genuine embarassment when I surf these sites and find somebody I once knew and is currently living a fairly normal life, mugging like they're the next John Belushi/Paris Hilton/Whatever the fuck. Okay, I get it, you drink a lot. Or you at least want people to think you drink a lot. Great. You're also 25. Get over it. No one is impressed.
2) While the party-animal pose is feigned, the illiteracy Brooks points out is real. The glorification of said illiteracy is also real. This concerns me more than a little bit.
3) The mid 20s phenomenon that Brooks cites is real as well. I suppose you could make the case that I fit into this category in some ways, though I'll put up a pretty good argument that I, in fact, do not. My concern with this phenomenon goes back to point #1 in this list. The refusal to grow up is neither healthy nor attractive. This also concerns me more than a little bit.
So maybe Brooks and I can have tea now and discuss our newfound similarities. I hope not.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/opinion/08brooks.html?hp (It's Times Select, remember.)
Posted by mike at January 8, 2006 10:12 PM