WhoseSpace is it Anyway?

Recently another musician encouraged me to join MySpace, the social networking service that has become the latest online craze.

My first reaction was, “Who has time?” Well, lots of people, I discovered.

Then I felt irked. “Look, I’m already blogging, aren’t I? Isn’t that up-to-the-minute enough?’ Apparently not.

Last year, the blog was the new website. This year, MySpace is the new blog. Musicians, in particular, have taken to MySpace, because it allows their songs to start playing instantly when people visit their page, and it also provides easy gig listings and bloggability. In other words, it’s the new website AND blog. Plus, it has that all-important social networking aspect.

What’s the appeal of social networking for “indie artists”? The ability to publicly praise artists one likes and be praised back, hopefully by artists of high status. The more people linking to you—and the more appealing or successful they are—the better you look.

In other words, MySpace is a big public popularity contest.

Maybe that’s why I spent so much time picking out my picture for it. Actually, I ended up taking it myself (which is somehow appropriate). I briefly posted the picture in this blog, but it looked so ridiculously self-centred (because I already have one picture of myself on the page) I took it off.

As for MySpace, I couldn’t get into the “music” part of the site, so my picture ended up on the ordinary networking part of the service, and for some reason, the default setting (which I couldn’t change) is “single” (which I’m not). Seeing this, I immediately moved to delete my picture from my page, but it wouldn’t delete. This is a bad sign. Suddenly I’m feeling very protective of my space.

Then I browsed around the site and discovered that Joni Mitchell (THE Joni Mitchell) is on the “friends” list of some musicians I know. Suddenly I feel as if I’m back in Grade 7. “Omigod, why hasn’t Joni picked ME??!!!!!” I think, “Now I MUST get on MySpace Music…RIGHT NOW!”. And then I think, “I must find the girls’ washroom because I think I am going to cry.”

Then, I notice the fine print, breathe a sigh of relief and collect myself.

“This isn’t actually Joni Mitchell’s personal MySpace page. It’s run by a fan.”

Oh. Well, then. The world has not gone completely berserk.

It's a relief to know that Joni is not checking her MySpace page as we speak, looking to see how many "friends" linked to her. Perhaps, instead, she's writing a beautiful song, or painting, or corresponding with her daughter, or…I don’t know, even writing a personal essay in a teensy unnoticed corner of the blogosphere (which is, as you’ve noticed, MY space.) At least that’s creative and reflective.

Right now, I’m going to look around my real-life space. What do I see? I see a room that needs tidying, and a life that needs attending-to. I see evidence of real people, just a few, the only ones this house can comfortably accommodate. I see a guitar and a notepad, which really don’t take up so much space in my life…which are most at home in real places, and appreciated by real people.

P.S. When I first wrote this piece, a few days ago, I couldn't upload it for some reason, so it remained dormant for a few days. During that time I wrote a new song called "Larger Than Life" which marks a first for me, something I've been trying to accomplish for some time: referring to emails and cyberspace in a decent song. I'm happy with how this one came out, but it's the first time it's worked. It turned out to be not only a commentary on Internet self-promotion, but other ways of artificially inflating our all-too-human selves.

Here's an excerpt:

I post my picture on the message board
I send my signal into space
A million pixels reaching out for more
Some idol time cannot erase

We look around at the things we’ve got
So scared that everything’s too small
Charge our purchase to the lines we bought
And punch our cards into the wall…

Larger than life, we could be
Larger than life
Larger than life
We all wanna be...