That Cat Shaft is a Bad Mother--Shut Your Mouth

Bill Maher: New Rule: Bluetooth headset users have to do something that lets me know you're just on the phone and not a dangerous schizophrenic. Right? We don't know if you're talking to your secretary or the evil leprechaun who lives in your head. You're not the chief communications officer of the Starship Enterprise. You're a shoe salesman asking your mom if you can bring over your laundry. If I wanted to overhear every tedious scrap of brain static rattling around in your head, I'd read your blog.

—Real Time With Bill Maher, (Season 4, 2006)

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A little while ago, inspired by something I saw over at bthesite, I spent some time tonight profile-hopping around MySpace. Some profiles are pretty dull (such as mine), some are all kinds of customized. A bunch have music that automatically plays, often before the page is finished loading. That's a bit of a pain when you're already streaming music, but I'm not going to complain too loudly about it. It's not as though it's made my life a Dickensian nightmare or anything. That's what my job is for.

Most MySpace pages have at least a little bit of the self-expression thing going on besides the usual likes and dislikes. And nearly all of the profiles that I saw tonight were pretty positive in their outlook and in the comments that appeared at the bottom: look at this, isn't it cool, glad to hook up with you again, LOL/ROFL, I had fun last night,etc.

So it stood out when I spotted a profile that wasn't quite so positive. There were some generic comments about "people who lie and cheat" and "people who go on about how great they are when they're not" and how they promise to name names. And, oddly enough, they do name names. There were specific comments about a particular female being a slut, about her being ugly, about her being fat (which is kind of amusing, coming from someone whose pictures have her sporting a double chin). Stuff of this nature, aimed at this specific person, appeared in assorted places all over this particular profile.

It was truly unique in its mean-spiritedness. And I couldn't help but think that this is a person who is spending a lot of their energy on someone whom they say isn't worth that much attention. There's a little bit of irony for you.

For what it's worth, this one person wasn't the only recipient of this person's little brickbats of bitterness, but she certainly received the lion's share. It really took me back to the days when I was in high school, back when American History textbooks could be printed on a single sheet of paper. My high school definitely had its share of cliques, and the cutting comments were fast and thick and merciless when a person didn't belong. This MySpace profile reminded me of that.

Only, it wasn't a high schooler's profile. It was that of an adult around my age. Go figure.

Comments

[Daily Breather]

I second that New Rule! oh, sorry. I was talking to my mom.

[Daily Breather]

I love that fat pig hate bullshit on Myspace. It's so high school. Oh they're our age? That's embarrassing.