MySpace.com. Facebook.com. YouTube.com. These are Web sites visited and revisited daily, and they have revolutionized the way millions of people communicate and share their daily news. With these new avenues of networking, newspapers set out to find out how they work, and why they’re so addictive and whether they’re safe.
A screen with a projected MySpace image welcomed students, teachers, parents and business professionals to the ninth public forum held by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. All of the attendants were there to discuss MySpace, the third most popular Web site next to Google and Yahoo.
Residents ranged in age from 11-year-old Citaylah Francis to professional men and women who have watched technology grow into what it is today. After receiving a nametag sticker and identification card, Thomas A. Silvestri, president and publisher of the Times-Dispatch, welcomed the group and initiated the discussion.
The Times-Dispatch public square series began Sept. 28, 2005, with the topic of building a performing arts center downtown.
Silvestri described the public forums as “a simple conversation” used “to go after community issues that are important,” he said, explaining the T-D’s purpose for the open discussions.
The forum was being simulcast on TimesDispatch.com for the first time – a request from other public square regulars who could not make it downtown.
Silvestri explained the rules: approach a microphone, turn your yellow identification card to a microphone monitor and keep a look out for the time. A yellow card is a 30-second warning; a red card means finish speaking.
If a speaker got the red card, Silvestri said the time monitor would head-butt you. The room erupted in laughter, loosening tensions, relaxing nerves and preparing the room for conversation.
Silvestri wasted no time to initiate the conversation. Before those in attendance could take their last sip of water to coat their speaking voice, two microphones were passed around to find why people came and some basic facts about online social networking. Soon people were standing in line behind the four standing microphones to speak.
Many might feel Internet networking, such as MySpace or Facebook, is a recent development in the online realm.
But Charles Hagg, owner of a network security business, said online networking is nothing new.
“I was doing this on AOL 11 years ago in 1995,” he said. “Now it’s much more advanced now. It was quite different, but this is really nothing new.”
Hagg said he developed an addiction in 1995, one that he struggled to break away from.
“I became absolutely addicted to it,” he said. “When I got home from work I had to go to the computer and sign on and chat with my friends.”
Ameesha Felton, a VCU junior mass communications major, agreed with Hagg.
“Once you get into (a scoial networking Web site,) you open that door, and it’s so hard to shut it,” she said.
Felton joined Facebook two years ago after seeing how many of her friends used the service. Since then, she said, she has become addicted.
Felton said not all qualities of online networking are negative. She recently reunited with a sister she had not spoken to in years. Her sister is now coming home to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family, thanks to MySpace.
Holly Harbottle, a VCU junior mass communications major, said rekindling long lost flames is one of her favorite aspects of MySpace and Facebook.
“It’s helped me get back in contact with people who dropped off the face of the earth in my book,” she said.
She lost contact with a friend when she was a little girl. They recently found each other on MySpace, and they discussed all of their life changes.
“She’s married now and has two kids,” she said. “She and I are actually supposed to get together in the next week or two.”
For some in the room, the kids were the reason they were there.
Chesterfield resident Julia Torres Barder, a mother of three, said she knows the Internet is her friend, but she is also aware it can be her enemy.
“I don’t want to speak about technology,” she said. “I’m just here as a mom.”
She described MySpace as a “pedophile’s wonderland” and said she came to the forum to try to calm her fears about her children using such Web sites.
“I’m here to try not to be so afraid,” she said.
Richard Campbell, deputy attorney general who runs the state’s computer crime unit, came to the microphone and said while there are precautions a user may take, such as setting a profile to private or blocking other users, parents have reason to worry.
“The myth of anonymity on the Internet is the greatest myth of all,” he said.
Campbell said that at his office he and coworkers continually are handling cases of solicitation and child pornography.
Barder, with arms crossed and eyes squinted in conversation, nodded her head.
Then Gabby Capriles, a University of Richmond student, came to the microphone to allay the mother’s fears.
“Talk to your kids,” she said. “Make sure they don’t go and meet people online.”
Capriles said if parents communicate the dangers with their children, the dangers can be avoided.
“I think Facebook in itself isn’t dangerous. I think what you do with it can be dangerous,” she said.
When Silvestri asked how many hours a day she spends on Facebook, Capriles recoiled from the microphone and said, “I don’t want to talk about that. Too many.”
She said she cancelled her MySpace account but did not say why.
Attendees discussed topics such as homework not being completed, the cure to the addiction, lying about online identity and the loss of human interaction and the human voice.
Justin Cowenhagen, who was there for his school newspaper, said regardless of which avenue people choose to communicate-text message, instant message, MySpace or Facebook-the message still matters.
“The simple fact of the matter is though the human voice is not being used, the message is still being communicated,” he said.
Students went home, perhaps to sign on to their MySpace profiles, and parents went home feeling slightly more informed.
Silvestri said the forums will continue through 2007.
“This is a community with lots on their mind. If we can be a catalyst for that conversation, we’ll do so,” he said.