June 25, 2007

My 13-year-old cousin is on Myspace. Not My Space in particular, but the Web site Myspace. Obviously her profile is terrible. I mean, she’s 13! I didn’t know any CSS when I was 13. I barely know any now.

However, the reason I bring it up is two-fold:

1. Her parents are freaking out about it
2. She’s on it several hours a day and only has 3 friends.

I constantly am amazed by how unlearned kids are. I mean, the other day my cousins asked me where I thought the universe came from if there was no God. I said, “well, where did God come from then?” To which they had no answer. Not only did they have no answer, but the question had never occurred to them.Actually, that’s probably a bad example.

A better example is thus: my friends and I were talking about how illogical superstition was and how we’d all believed in it at some point. My cousin jumped into the conversation and said, “well, I don’t know, maybe some of it is true.”

Okay, never mind, I have a much better example. I tried to explain to my 13-year-old female cousin why Myspace is okay as long as you’re careful about it and don’t talk to strangers when she said, “oh, no, I never do that. I mean, if one of them messaged me or added me and I thought their profile was interesting, I would, but only if they were my age.” To which I responded that it’s the Internet: you never know someone’s age. Even if they claim to be from the next school over, there’s no way to check without seriously putting yourself at risk. “Oh, I’d never thought of that. Gosh, you’re scaring me!”

She only said that last part because I was wearing a wolf mask, but the point remains. I stand by what I think that Myspace is okay for SOME 13 year olds. But in this case, I’m going to have to side with the over-concerned parents. Their kids are just too stupid to leave alone.

(My new category ‘daily slice‘ means daily slice of life and has its origins in this post.)

My 13-year-old cousin is on Myspace. Not My Space in particular, but the Web site Myspace. Obviously her profile is terrible. I mean, she’s 13! I didn’t know any CSS when I was 13. I barely know any now. However, the reason I bring it up is two-fold: Her parents are freaking out about it…