Wednesday, May 24, 2006

My Space Schtuff

A school district in Lake County, IL is now monitoring the MySpace accounts of its students. Now, if the powers-that-be find anything offensive on a student's MySpace account, especially anything discussing illegal substances, then the students can be disciplined.

Frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm the biggest supporter of free speech you're going to find out there, but more than the illegality aspect, I'm concerned with what students may post about other students. In America, we tend to believe anything once we read it, even if the source isn't reliable. Students talking about anything illegal is really only hurting that student, but bringing in others to the mix has the tendency to open a whole bunch of new doors.

This is a little concerning to me since I've just set up a MySpace account:

www.MySpace.com/marcusengel

and I've invited everyone with MySpace accounts to link to my lens. And, not only do I welcome this, I encourage it! Am I lessening my professionalism by allowing my lens to be linked with those who may have offensive material on their places? Maybe, but does it make me look bad? Or them? It's a risk I'll take. So, bring it on, MySpace friends!

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