Human beings have a peculiar fascination with and curiosity about what is happening in other people’s lives, and what they think and do. MySpace has opened up a perfect opportunity for people to indulge in this guilty pleasure of gossip and curiosity. For example by simply signing on to MySpace, automatically bulletins pop up, usually with “surveys” that people have filled out with all sorts of useless but somehow enthralling information about themselves. This person’s survey has tells people that she has a bruise, that she hates hearing people chew, and that she does not get motion sickness, among other things. These are not necessarily important to anyone else’s life, yet for some reason people love reading things like this. People naturally like to know details about others because it makes them feel as if they have a connection to another person. However, just like they are not physically talking to one another, they do not physically have and actual connection. It is important to remember that it is not a completely true representation of the person who’s profile you are viewing, but instead a blending of their reality and their fantasy.
Browsing through someone’s page makes the viewer feel like they have an insight into their life – you can find out what they have been doing through pictures, blogs, and other people’s comments. Human beings are incredibly curious creatures, and by being able to look at someone’s life in this personal matter is so appealing because you can do all this from an anonymous stance - no one can see you doing this. It is like getting an open invitation to go snooping through someone’s room, or read their diary. However, it is virtual reality, not reality. While the viewer feels that they are getting an intimate, secret view into the mind and life of the person whose profile they are looking at, it is somewhat of an illusion. The user still gets to choose what to post, and does not have to expose themselves any more than they want to. It is a strange tradeoff, because it allows people to indulge in their secret, guilty desires and curiosity, while allowing those being looked at to not give away any information that they do not want to.