May 15th, 2007 by Atomictumor
So, the Oak Ridger today is running an article about how one of the candidates for school board has a MySpace page with an allusion to being bitch-slapped, as well as just kinda generally being a myspace page.
Now, this seems to reflect an interesting generational divide that we might be seeing a bit more of in the next few years, in that the ways that folks my age (and this guy’s about 5 years younger than me, but for the sake of argument, lets just say that I’m young too, OK?) have expressed themselves.
With Myspace.
Now, the candidate, Aaron Wells, set his profile to private after it got out that he had one, bearing a mighty banner saying something about being “bitch-slapped”, but some enterprising young go getter apparently managed to cache a copy or some such technical nonsense and post it on a photo-sharing website, and some other weirdo on the forums managed to find it. Looking it over, I really don’t know what the big deal is.
I mean, who hasn’t been bitchslapped? I’ve been bitchslapped a time or two in my life, both before and after I was 24, and lemme tell ya, its something you put on your website. You tell everybody about it, because its a singular incident. Its one of those things that defines who you are.
For this reason, I don’t see any problem with the boy’s website. Its a good, solid, myspace page. Not a crappy, non-updated one like this one. No, its straight up myspace.
And therein lies the generational gap. For folks born either at the ass end of the Generation X thing, like yours truly, or folks born in the following generation, like Aaron, Myspace is a bit of an institution. Its a society, with social norms and values that may appear odd, or even boorish to the uninitiated.
The “bitch slap” area was a comment left by a friend on the front page. The section of the page that Aaron would write did not mention a penchant for bitch slapping, or anything else that would lead one to have an opinion either way on the boy’s leadership capabilities. Bad taste in music, maybe, but hell, thats never stopped a president from getting elected, right? In fact, I think the only president I’ve seen in my life with any kind of decent taste in music was Jimmy Carter, who had the Allman Bro’s rock a fundraiser for him, and had Bob Dylan as a frequent visitor to the pad. Now, thats a president I can get behind. He’s screwed if theres an oil or hostage crisis, but damn, he’ll throw down and party.
I digress.
Now, the thing with this bitchslap thing, and where I think, subconciously we’re all finding fault here, is with the poor grammar of the bitchslapper. Now, if you notice:
I think this is a lesson to all those running for school board. Remember, even if you don’t post it on your own myspace account, keep in mind that good grammar is always important. Doubly so if you are somebody’s bitch.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I think you should take a poll as to how many X’ers and Boomers you have as readers. Any wwII’s out there? I am more of an X-er than a Boomer, but technically I am on the cusp. (By the way, I do not think myspace is good for anyone, after the pyscho-stalker girl in my neighborhood tried to set up my teenage son.) So tumorites, show your generation!
May 15th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Oooookay. I am definitely a boomer. Born in…drum roll please……1958. I guess that puts me near the end of the boomer generation, but hey, I had long hair in high school. I didn’t do acid with Janice or anything, but I’m sure not an X’er.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Personally I think that this town will be ready to elect a myspace pager within the next 10 years or so. Hopefully after myspace dies a slow agonizing death.
May 15th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
” . . . keep in mind that good grammar is always important.”
Spelling, too.
FWIW, I was born in the mathematical middle of the baby boom: 1955.
May 15th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
So much twaddle over nothing. But, I do think that My Space is the spawn of the devil.
My Gen? Right there with Punk and NM. Tweeners, I call it. Get the kids grown and out on their own just in time to start taking care of parents. *sigh*
(It has NOT been 25 years! La la la! I can’t hear you! La la la!)
May 15th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
The problem I see is not that he had a MySpace so much, but that his MySpace was set up as a campaign page, then he allowed all manner of crude comments unrelated to anything to do with the school board race.
I also have a problem with his assertion that he couldn’t do anything about the comments and pictures that other people posted (offensive language going back to the very first one); we all know that comments can be — and should be — moderated.
Without a doubt, I’m held accountable for what I post on my site, as well as other sites I’ve put up in the past. My campaign page is not one where I would allow comments about partying, b-slapping, or other personal nonsense.
One of the downsides of running for public office is that you do leave yourself open to scrutiny. It isn’t always fun, but it’s the way it is.
May 15th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Being the total uneducated twit I am, I had to Wiki the dates to see which I was, Boomer or X. I was glad to see that Boomers are 46-64 and Xers are 61-81. I can now proudly say I am both, since I was born between 61-64. I feel like a tweener too.
May 15th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
What I gained from Wells’ myspace page is that he doesn’t have the educational or professional background that I would look for in a school board member.
I have a myspace page that I use primarily to keep up with friends from high school. I’ve never found it to be spawn of the devil.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Myspace.com is like high school following you out into the real world… How many friends do you have? How much partying are you doing? Are you popular, or what?
And now we’ve got Facebook to deal with, too.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Generation Y? Anyone? Sigh… I’m all alone.
I’m iffy about MySpace. Yes, it has a cult following. Yes, people abuse it. But it does have certain aspects that I like. It’s a great way to keep in touch with my family, get updates on them, post “HI!!!” comments randomly. I found a lot of old high school friends that I wouldn’t have pinned down otherwise.
And, lucky me, none of the people I don’t want to talk to have found me. Because I got MARRIED and CHANGED MY NAME! HAHAHAH!!!
May 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
OK, Joel, I’m displaying my considerable ignorance, but what’s misspelled? My little red underliney misspelling bar didn’t pop up (like it just did for underliney), so evidently Google sez you’re bluffing.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I think Netmom hit the nail’s head with her comment.
I don’t get how myspace is spawn of the devil, though.
I’m on the tail-end of gen x. Yee, haw!
May 15th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
*sigh*
I really should not be allowed out in public. Always and forever inappropriate and offensive. Sorry, folks. I didn’t mean to insult anyone.
But truly, check out the MySpace pages of some teenage/early 20s girls. The pages of Penthouse are more modest. The boys are just as bad, with their violent and sex fantasies. Most often it’s the crap other people leave on others’ pages.
OK then. Back to my cave.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
aaron wells knocked on my door and handed me a flier and a magnet or pen or something i threw directly into the trash the other night. he called me “ma’am”.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
Don’t worry about it, LissaKay! And don’t go back to your cave!
I completely agree with you that there are some completely inappropriate and disgusting myspace pages out there - I just think that the responsibility lies with the folks who create the pages, not myspace itself.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
LissaKay I was not insulted. You are quite correct, Myspace has a sometimes deserved bad rep and has been used inappropriately, but I do so love the contact it gives me with my kids/adopted kids. My adult brothers and sisters think I am insane, and although I have been vicariously exposed to some things about my kid’s friends that I wish I did not know, I have also been privy to some important things that I was able to help my kids through that I would never have known about. Now they are all “big adults” and we use it as a tool to communicate to the group at large.
Now if I can just figure out which freakin’ generation I am my life would be complete. Well, almost complete…as soon as I get rid of Martin Lawrence then it will be complete.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I guess I’m an X’er. (67!!) But I was raised so traditionally I feel more like a boomer. Hmm….
I think Myspace is like high school. … and I couldn’t WAIT to get out of there so I have no use for it.
This guy does sound like he just wants to run for something. It doesn’t matter what. That is exactly the type you DON”T want on a board of education.
I’ll be helping to present our new world language curriculum to our BOE soon and I would like to think that the members of the board have some understanding of and/or background in education.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
oops DON’T
I think it’s time to go to sleep!!
May 15th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Boomer here, and too damn old for a myspace page. Hell, I can’t even find that site.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Jacket, Myspace has a special firewall against old fogies like us….I only got my site because I had my 15 year old do it for me…..
May 15th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Is that the problem? A firewall for a boomer? Well…. These punks are too smart for me.
Really, I can’t navigate that silly thing worth a hoot in hell. MC’s posts on the forums are easier to follow.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Uh, AT, I didn’t say you misspelled anything. Only that standards of spelling should be upheld. You hippie.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I’m in college right now, and I had made a facebook at one point (similar to myspace) just to read people’s things for classmates and laugh at the stuff they put on there, but then I found out you had to be their friend first, so then I just had my room mate tell me what she found. Anyways, I think many are too reliant on it, like I found out in my first 2 semesters that every time you had a group project, everyone wanted your “facebook” as a means of communication instead of email/phone, and when I told them I didn’t have one, they were like “Can you get one??”. Kind of annoying.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I don’t think the problem is myspace, its how people use it. Those slutty teen and 20-somethings are going to regret it, but that’s their problem. I had some idiot telling me that NO professional woman could succeed and have one. When I said I had one, she said it was a poor business decision because how could any potential employers feel about seeing me drunk and naked on myspace. It never once, not even after I tried to convince her, dawned on her that its not an issue because I am not NAKED on my myspace page!
May 16th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Or drunk!
May 16th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I used Myspace as a way to communicate with my hubby when he was in Iraq, it was pretty handy then. Now I use it to laugh at people. I think I’ve taken all the naked pics off…except the few of AT. Those are classic. (Erin, I’m with ya on the Y-er)
May 16th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Another Y-er! Do I hear a “WOOT”??