Just in case you’ve missed the World Wide Web boat, MySpace.com is the latest craze among the Internet generation, enabling them to keep in contact with both new and old friends, high school and college classmates, as well as friends of friends, their favorite band, and the friends of their favorite band. This entire connection can be done without stepping foot outside of a front door or picking up a telephone. It’s become an addiction- a way of life for so many that it’s a wonder how previous generations ever got along without it.

When an interested party signs up for a free MySpace account, they basically are entitled to create their own, personalized page on the site (called a profile), view the profiles of other members and “add" them to their “friends list". Once someone has accepted you as a friend, you can post a “comment" on the appropriate spot on his or her profile page. “Bulletins" may be posted by one member and will be seen by all friends. Pictures and videos can be added to any profile for all friends to see, all to make a profile unique and a reflection of oneself.

But there’s hardly a web surfer in cyberspace that isn’t at least mildly concerned with Internet safety, especially when it comes to kids. The creators of MySpace couldn’t agree more and have established rules and regulations for all members to follow. Any picture or graphic deemed unfit by the MySpace team will be deleted, and the profile of the poster may be expelled. There are also minimum age requirements and advanced security settings for anyone to adjust. For example, you can have your profile set so that only those on your friends list can view it, and any potential friend needs to know either your last name or email address for the request to be sent.

Blogging, which is short for web logging, is an online journal for a “blogger" to write whatever they’d like to see (and have others see) on the World Wide Web. MySpace has seen the rise of blogging and added it to the website for members to use if they wish. All posts on blogs are visible to anyone who can view a profile.

Of course, the craze doesn’t stop with having the most friends or pictures. Having a MySpace profile page that’s a mirror of the owner’s personality is just as important, if not more so. Interesting and colorful backgrounds and sparkling graphics are available that would raise the eyebrows of Bill Gates. The favorites of movies, music, celebrities and snack foods are plastered all over the MySpace profile pages of fans across the globe. And don’t forget; changing your page more often than you change your socks is quite the growing trend, as “keeping up with the Joneses" requires the latest in technologies.