www.MyWorld.com

[The following guest posting is by a seventeen-year who has much to teach us about the evangelistic possibilities of the new social spaces on the Internet.]

www.MyWorld.com is the coolest place there is! You can go there any time you are online, which is nearly all the time for most people today--or should be, anyway. You can post totally doctored or faked photos of yourself (morph your body, fix your skin), chose a name, and seek buddies. The more buddies you have, the cooler you are. Of course, you never meet these buddies outside of the computer, and they may not be who or what they claim, but who cares! They are your buddies: you can stare at their come-hither poses, read their postings, and keep racking up the count. If they bother you, delete 'um! It's so easy and simple.

Why bother much with messy, face-to-face "relationships" when you can have www.MyWorld.com buddies? Sure, some parents worry that we will get hooked on this or even get abused by wierdos who prowl for lonely teens, but it's just worth the risk because it's all so totally cool and awesome. What do the parents know, anyway?

Why hassle with reading books, which are so lacking in photos, can't be made into my style, and, well, like, just sit there? How boring! In www.MyWorld.com I never have to read more than a few lines at a time anyway, and they are always so interesting. Just yesterday a buddy wrote, "Ohmygod, you are so funny. I laughed so hard I spilled my energy drink all over the keyboard." Books have words in them that I cannot relate to. Know what I mean? But my buddies never do that. Here is another one, "You're a hotsy. I can't stand it." Or this one: "Buddha's my home boy." How cool, is that?!

It's www.MyWorld.com and welcome to it.

[For satirically-impared, the above is a parody of attitudes toward MySpace. US News and World Report just ran a thoughtful article about MySpace aimed at parents. All parents with children using computers should read it.]