Hanna: Learning to wade through MySpace

It also has been quite the learning experience. It took a while to figure out the features and dangers of the social networking site, so for those gearing up to give MySpace a try, here are some hints:• MySpace is full of buzzwords. "Friend" is someone linked directly to your MySpace page. Friends have to be invited by you or you have to accept their invitation to become part of one another's circle. "Messages" work just like e-mail, but on MySpace. "Comments" is an area on every user's page where friends can post messages. Most people use comments to "drop by and say hi," keeping them short. "Bulletins" offer a place to post a message to all of your friends' pages at once. It's a neat tool; I sent one out doing research for this column. "Profile" is what your unique page looks like, encompassing your background, photos, even the music you have chosen to play for visitors to your site. People are out there actually making a living designing profile backgrounds for MySpace. "Tom" is always your first MySpace friend. He's the MySpace president, and has his own page. I'm guessing Tom has more friends than anyone else on MySpace, clocking in as I write this at 194,876,103.• MySpace is filled with advertisements. Some are legitimate, some not. As another MySpace user wrote me, "MySpace ... with cheesy, loud ads and ringtones everywhere ... is starting to remind me of the mall or something." That's a pretty good description. Advertisements do pop up everywhere, and it's difficult to tell the real ones from the fake ads, leading into the next point.• A constant problem on MySpace is that of spammers and phishers. They can hack into your site and spam all of your friends, either through messages, bulletins or posted comments. One of the most common types of spam lures users in by promising a tracking device that will tell you who is visiting your page. Most of my friends agreed that all trackers were bogus."I know someone who fell for these so-called trackers," one of my friends wrote. "He ended up having comments posted to all of his friends' sites advertising the tracker, and that's all he got out of it. He had to kill his account and start over from scratch."Never fork over your MySpace password to anyone, and change your password often.• If you are a parent of a teenager or a preteen, I beg you to have a look at what your kids are doing. I had to delete a friend, the 14-year-old cousin of an acquaintance, because he kept posting bulletins that could potentially send the feds after me. One glance at his page taught me new ways to curse. Your little angel might not do something like that, but I thought this kid was a little angel as well, and I'm sure his parents still do. MySpace can be a dangerous place for kids. Monitor them online.• MySpace really can be a great networking tool. Many people, including a few here in the newsroom, use the site to keep in touch with sources and to network with colleagues. It's the modern-day e-mail for some people.• I only have one more warning about MySpace. It can be addictive. Luckily, the novelty wears off, because I found myself at first spending hours on end checking it out, searching and messaging and missing my bedtime.Give it a try, and happy trails in the world of MySpace.