To myspace, or not to myspace?

I've had this dilemma for over a year now, when I decided I no longer wanted to keep my myspace account due to its time-sucking, vanity-inducing, and voyeuristic qualities. I felt I'd become addicted to viewing public profiles online--of people I both knew and didn't know, and that just felt icky. I also had developed what I considered an unhealthy fixation on maintaining my own personal profile, frequently worrying about how I was presenting myself. To a lesser degree, I also found that I was concerned about the design and layout of my page, as the myspace profile designs have become increasingly elaborate and, dare I say, competitive. As a perfectionist, I felt overwhelmed by my inability to have a perfect profile. Thus, I began my long and irksome quest to cancel my account.

Myspace allows users to cancel accounts with little hassle--that is, unless the user happens to have a nonexistent email account, as did I. When I first signed up for a myspace account, back in the days when a profile took 20 minutes to load, LindyHop411 still hosted a site and discussion forum, and email accounts for the administrators. As group participation and interest feigned, we saw no point in keeping the site and its attachments, so we canceled it, and that email account no longer existed for me--yet, I could still sign into myspace with it. When canceling a myspace account, one must click on a confirmation link that is sent to the email address used to login with. I could never receive the confirmation link for obvious reasons, and so when I attempted to change my email address with myspace, they again sent a confirmation link to the nonexistent email address, making it nearly impossible for me to change my email address or cancel my account.

But they do have solutions! Yes, in order to once again gain control of my own account, I could simply send a mugshot of myself holding a sign with my "friend ID." They call this a salute (I stand by the term mugshot). Over the course of a year, I sent several such salutes, as well as my password (which was requested!), and many a damning email to the myspace customer service team, which I now picture as a couple of tech geeks sitting in a lonely room laughing at the users who send in their passwords and mugshots.

After much ado, I finally got my email address changed, so all I had to do was cancel my account. But I wasn't quite ready. I had been logging into myspace so infrequently that I thought I would take a better look at what all of my "friends" had been up to. A couple of friends who are or were pregnant posted pictures of their babies and growing stomachs, and others posted pictures of their young children. One friend who moved to England had posted pictures of her paintings, and I didn't even know she painted! They were truly amazing pieces. Another old friend from middle school linked from her profile to a new blog she'd begun, and while we haven't really kept in touch since middle school, I was excited to know what was going on in her life, and her blog inspired me to write more in my own (as did Kathy's kind email). And then I realized that I didn't want to miss out on all of that knowledge.

So I've decided to remain a myspacer for the present and the foreseeable future. My profile is set to private, so unless you have an account, you can't really view very much, but here it is: http://myspace.com/leeanned. And if you do have an account and are not on my friend list, please request to add me, so I can then spend countless hours pouring over your profile and pictures, as well as those of your friends :)