I think I’m over it now

Several years ago, back lo the many moons when I was still in graduate school, a classmate of mine recommended MySpace to me as the be all end all of the universe. Yeah, ok, sure, it was a major hub of communication for a while. I reconnected with some people on there, made some new friends, and talked to some interesting people. But all in all, I also met some frrrrrrrrreaks and weirdos and realized the level of artifice involved in the whole damn scene. Then came Facebook and I have a long-ass list of invitations from people who mean well by inviting me but who will never get me on yet another social networking site. Then you have the folks with a MySpace, a Facebook, a Twitter, etc., and it’s like, Do you ever sleep? Do you ever read a book? Watch a good TV show? See a movie? Leave the house? (heavy sigh)


I read a good article a while back on the level of self-aggrandizement involved with having multiple social network pages, Twitter updates, etc., etc. To me, a blog is more than enough. I look at it like a diary that just happens to be made public. And it’s a lot of fun for someone like me who enjoys writing to blow off steam and to have a go at people who piss me off. With the MySpace page though, I think I am over it now. I’m done. I cancelled my profile (as did a good friend of mine for much the same reasons) and I feel good about it. Back to the article, it raises a good question: how much shit on the web do you need in order to feel important or good about yourself or whatever? The woman who recommended MySpace to me in the first place, fittingly enough, is not even in my life anymore and I don’t believe we’ve spoken since . . . let me think here . . . I guess 2006 or 2007 at best. Everyone else who is a part of my regular, offline life has my contact information. And the other people are basically strangers that I have collected along the way and, to this day, are still strangers. The little questionnaire they give you in the process of trying to dump your account is telling:



Please let us know why you're cancelling your account. You can really help us improve MySpace!

I'm bored with MySpace
I'm getting too much spam or too many friend requests
I'm concerned about Privacy
I'm getting too much email from MySpace
There is too much drama
Some other reason


I laughed out loud at the “there is too much drama” category. If you are above the age of, say, 25 and you have to contemplate that answer to a questionnaire, things are greatly amiss. I am 28 and I won’t even shop in the juniors clothing section anymore because I feel it’s ridiculous when you see grown-ass women in the teeny bopper sections of stores. I think this is all part of a bigger transformation within myself of finally being comfortable in my own skin. And it feels great. It has been something that’s only happened as a gradual process over the past couple of years. A friend gave me a blackmail photo that she took of me in the summer of 2006 when I was 25. I looked at it and, Simon Cowell though it may sound, thought, “I have aged well. I am off to a good start on the aging train.” I have reached that place in life where I don’t feel like I have to try as hard. People say that teenagers and college aged girls don’t have to try--men will simply flock to them because they are young. I dunno how it is for other people but that sure as hell was not my experience. I never had a man approach me in a bar and say, “I want to date you because you are 21 and I am not anymore.” I am happy to be in a place of knowing that I am an adult and wanting to be perceived as an adult because I am not a kid and I have to deal with adult responsibilities. I’m not 80 years old and I certainly don’t want to look like I stole one of my grandmother’s pantsuits, LOL, but I am not 18 either and I don’t want people treating me like a teenaged kid. Maybe that’s my take-away message for this blog: when you reach the point in adulthood where you are comfortable in your own skin and you have a lot of good things going for you, you don’t have to try so hard and you don’t have to get mired in fakery. You can just be.