Talkin’ ’Bout MySpace Generation
Activism as a Judicial Philosophy
March 1, 2006

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.

With the song “All by Myself” playing in the background, a teenage boy in the commercial confesses, “I skipped school just to do it. I wouldn’t hang out with my friends. I have to admit, I was addicted.” And then an announcer describes the symptoms of this “debilitating condition”: MSA, or “MySpace Addiction.” The fake commercial ends with a plug for a church youth group, “a place for real friends.”

If you’re 35 or older, the term MySpace probably does not register with you. But for many young people, this “social networking” website is the “place” to be. In just two years since it was launched, MySpace’s membership has jumped from zero to 47.3 million.

The way MySpace.com works is this: Members, mostly between the ages of 14 and 34, develop a profile, offering information about themselves, as well as photos. Besides talking about themselves, members mainly spend their time visiting the pages of “friends,” who, of course, are nearly all people they’ll never meet in “real life.” How should we as Christians think about this growing phenomenon? The rest