9- MySister = MyDonation to MySpace

One infamous culprit for Caplan’s Problematic Internet Use is MySpace. MySpace, a networking site involving interests, movies, music, and more, has multiple attributes that can provoke problematic Internet use. Unfortunately, my sister suffers from many attributes associated with Problematic Internet Use. But before I have fun psychoanalyzing my sister, I’ll discuss some of the potentially hazardous MySpace lures.

Wallace (1999) mentions that the operant conditioning factor plays an important role in addictive Internet use saying that it operant conditioning is more effective in a synchronous environment. (p. 182) Though MySpace is asynchronous, it still has some very potent operant conditioning features. One feature is the “friend request” feature (This can also be applied to Facebook, which I’m sure has been done a hundred times in this blog by now). Anyway, it works like this; once you’ve signed on and checked your home page, often, or maybe not so often depending on how successful you are at selectively presenting yourself, someone may request to be your friend. Yes, the excitement of being “friend requested” is in fact entrancing to a MySpac-er. One example of this is apparent when you begin to compare the amount of friends that you have (social capital) to the amount of friends your friends have (FRIENDS BLAHHH). Where does operant conditioning fit in? Imagine you’ve been “friend requested” numerous times at each log in. Your “fan-base” is expanding, and you feel this self-acceptance within your group of MySpace friends. Each time you’ve signed on positive reinforcement is taking place. But how do you feel when you sign on and you don’t get a message that says “Would you like to be friends with ‘OnLy <3 BraNdon 4EvEr’?” Obviously, not so good. But, what do you do next? You sign on again, and maybe this time there is a friend request, again reinforcing this sign-on behavior or maybe you’re again left feeling urgent. In some instances, it has gotten so bad that my sister will ‘refresh’ her home page every few minutes to check and see if she has been friended.












Another lure could be MySpace’s intergroup competitiveness of creating the best, most artistically designed page. Way too often, my sister diligently encodes memorized html into boxes that produce extravagant designs and artistic layout. When MySpace is used this way it can certainly become a time consumer.

MySpace does create habitual use as well. Often, my sister will sign onto MySpace almost subconsciously. It may be the very first thing she does when she gets out of bed and the last thing she does before she goes to sleep.
These are just a few poignant features of MySpace that are hazardous but ultimately, the features are endless, when it comes to its potential for Problematic Internet Use. According to an article on www.marketwatch.com written by Andrea Coombes, “Companies are worried about the risk of sharing company secrets and the time spent on such sites [as MySpace and Facebook].” (Oct. 26, 2007) Companies are responding by “restricting time usage on sites like MySpace and Facebook,” according to Coombes.

Reflecting Caplan and Davis’ study observations, my sister has some predisposed conditions that could be a supportive of a preference for Internet use. At one point within the past few years she has been depressed or lonely, which are both conditions that could lead to more Internet use. Here is where Caplan’s psychosocial problems could apply to MySpace. Why wouldn’t someone want to make friends asynchronously and with the removal of gating features (recall McKenna’s facilitation factors)?

More specifically however, if she uses the Internet excessively, according to Caplan, she is more susceptible to PIU and because MySpace is so time consuming, it advocates her excessive use of the Internet.

Likewise, Caplan also discusses the compulsive use of the Internet as a factor in PIU. My sister ritually partakes in MySpace activities and engages in its opportunistic layout and set-up for habituation.

Finally, the operant conditioning features mentioned above can be interwoven with the mood alteration and withdrawal symptoms of PIU mentioned by Caplan. Essentially, because MySpace offers this cult-like language and satisfying condition in relation to “friend requests,” people who use MySpace may be more susceptible to PIU.