I no longer have a MySpace account. I cancelled it. It should be deleted within the next 48 hours. Why, you may ask?
Well, here is the reason I gave them in their questionairre box.
I find the large picture of a 3/4 naked woman that pops up on my screen every time I log in offensive.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have put it like that. What I really mean to say is that I have a hard time using a site that forces me to see things make me have to fight a battle in my mind. And really, there is extremely little utility to having a MySpace account. If I were a musician promoting my music, I would probably sign up again.
Also, not having an account prevents me from clicking that little “view more pics” link that poses a haunting little potential problem for me.
So, massive apologies to all MySpace users out there to whom my disappearance will cause a great inconvenience.
If you’d like, you can check out the article that caused me to re-examine my involvement with the site. I think there is a fair argument to be made on both sides, I just don’t see the argument that says “if you cancel MySpace then you should also cancel your subscription to LiveJournal, Blogspot, etc, etc, for the same reason, so don’t cancel MySpace…” to hold much water. I don’t necessarily disagree with it’s premise, perhaps you should, but the conclusion “so don’t cancel MySpace” just doesn’t seem to add up to me.
Legalism? Perhaps. I’d like to think of it as more of a personal safety mechanism. It would be legalism for me to say that you all need to do the same thing or else God will hate you. And that is just a silly thing to say.
March 30, 2006 at 11:06 am
I’m surprised ad blocker doesn’t block the offending image you are talking about. Do you use the filterset.g extension thingy with your adblocker? We find that gets nearly all ads, to the point where I sometimes forget there are ads on the web. :) It’s much nicer using filterset.g than blocking it all yourself!
Not that I blame you at all for cancelling your myspace account — I’ve never even been there but I have heard it is full of awful-ness. :)
March 30, 2006 at 11:18 am
I congratulate you, Matt, for taking a stand on the issue. We are accountable only to God. He will certainly know if we’ve allowed temptations like this in our life when we could have prevented them. I think of the verses in James 1:13-15;
“When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
March 30, 2006 at 12:58 pm
yea, luke and i had myspace accounts for a combined 72 hours i think before we both decided to cancel…
actually, luke’s answer to the questionaire was almost exactly like yours.
i’m not sure why blogspot made the list… but i guess i can imagine it being bad too. i never search it cause the average blog post there (unless you know the person) seems devoid of any content.
the one that’s been killing me lately? facebook. i don’t mind the site itself, i mean to each his/her own. but i do mind the gossip and drama it brings to the table with some of my friends. i haven’t seen bad ads, but i know the pics people post can be less than helpful to a guy’s purity too.
every time someone in the room logs in the gossip commences…
March 30, 2006 at 3:36 pm
matt- thank you for taking a stand (and nate and luke). i had been talking about canceling myself as well because of the pictures. in fact, i think i will do just that.
lata’
March 30, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Weird. I cancelled mine last week because I didn’t like all the pictures/it didn’t really serve any purpose for me. Thanks for taking a stand on protecting yourself.
March 30, 2006 at 6:06 pm
I don’t get the picture of the scantily clad woman on mine.
March 30, 2006 at 6:13 pm
(I’m pretty sure the selection of advertising displayed for you is contingent on the gender information you provide the site. In all reality, there shouldn’t have to be ANY reason for advertising to be targeted to you based on your sex. If there is, then they’re just resorting to cheap means to make an advertising cent here and there.)
But yeah, it needs to be communicated to them that this may not be the most effective way for them to sustain advertising revenue if the advertising repulses people from the site.
March 30, 2006 at 9:26 pm
I created a myspace site after being invited to join by someone… come to think of it… I think it was Matt! Fine then, I’ll cancel mine too!
By the way Matt, during your Rock message you mentioned some tools that we could use to protect ourselves from unwanted defilement. Kirsten spoke of one such thing like that in her comment. How about a blog or e-mail with links and explanations of things that can help us navigate the eye mines on the www?
March 30, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Hello all, and in particular Matt, you should all write an e-mail to the administrators of MySpace and complain about the advertising that caused you to eventually close your account. Please do this! :)
Other than that, good job!
-MTR
March 31, 2006 at 9:00 am
I also saw way too many risque pictures. It is unfortunately not just the ads, but also the “view more pics” button. I also seem to remember some sort of page that showed pictures of random myspace members, many of which were risque.
I canceled my account within a week of signing up. I mentioned the reasons why in the exit survey.
I don’t know if I would say every person ought to do this, but I needed to cancel my account. But then again, I also need to have my web browsing not only monitored (with X3Watch), but out and out filtered. I use DansGuardian (dansguardian.org, actually DG Complete on MacOSX http://www.lopata.net/dg_complete.html), and Kirsten is the only one with the admin password to my computer.
March 31, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I think myspace and facebook should combine to form…
myspacebook
(i realize my comment is completely devoid of any serious insight into the myspace controversy, but everybody has already said similar things to what I think about the matter)
April 2, 2006 at 2:40 pm
hey, did you know your photo page is ‘broken’? just tried to find sweet photo nancy took of me and found it unworking. ang
April 12, 2006 at 8:16 am
Wow people! If something offends, you do not look at it! If seeing pictures bothers you, stop looking for them! If you find a photo offensive, report it!! I have had DOZENS of accounts removed from myspace per a simple request. Dont just turn the whole thing off and let these filth get away with that foolishness. I “police” myspace as do many, many other people and it is a much better site for our efforts. Is it perfect? No…What the heck is?? There are dozens of great christian groups and theological discussion groups that could realy use some positve input from the likes of you. what do you do though; you run away and hide. WWJD? I think he would tell you not to judge the scantily clad girls and instead show them the error of their ways. Peace!
April 12, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Stop looking at them, when they are front and center, the most visually heavy element on the page. Right.
Judging the girls? Didn’t say a word about that.
Adblock is a wonderful thing that DOES allow me to not have to look at the photos, but ones eyes are naturally drawn to the largest, brightest colored elements, which are those advertisements.
Sorry dude, I find your advice utterly unhelpful.
Mostly the reason I removed my account was that it was utterly useless to me. Like I said, were I a band or promoter, it would be different. My band IS in fact on MySpace and plans to stay there.
May 25, 2007 at 1:17 pm
IDK
March 8, 2008 at 10:17 am
Hi…. i was searching for nancy naked and i came across your post and it is definitely the most sensible thing i have seen in a long time, and in my opinion you got something good going here, i have to get my friends to subscribe to your post about celled My MySpace Account. – Matt and Nancy Heerema.