In this week's cyberspace panic, MySpace again appeared as a source of danger. Two teenagers went missing, and their parents blamed that social networking service. News media ate this up. Notice the tremulous realization of technology merely several years old:
She and and Alexandra's mother, Kim Bridradfield, told the Daily News they believe the girls' disappearance is linked to MySpace.com, where both girls had "blogs."
And then - the girls returned. Everything's back to normal... except that the girls hooked up with a runaway girl, and at least one was brought back forcibly. What went on? Shhh - it's all ok now. No more MySpace?
As Dana Boyd notes, the media aren't exactly excited to point out their erroneous blaming of MySpace. Google News leads to many stories about the crisis, but far fewer on its resolution.
It's only been a few weeks since our last post on MySpace and the evil net. Again we see fears of and for teenagers projected onto this screen. This story has so many subtexts, so much suggestion.
(via Dana Boyd)
MySpace Layout Let me see that grill!
Posted by: Jrod | March 13, 2006 at 23:57
Oh dear. Was "blog" really in scare quotes?
Only the blogosphere would follow up on something as trivial as, well, the truth of the matter. Cynical, and not entirely fair, but I needed to vent.
Posted by: Gardner | March 14, 2006 at 17:38