Working in the social media space, I feel like I sometimes interpret situations differently than my peers. To prove this point, I’d like to share a little MySpace anecdote.

I was walking around downtown near Civic Center a couple of weekends ago, and a young guy, I’d say he was about 17 years old, came up to me and started walking alongside me. He asked me three questions:

1. ‘What’s up with you?’

2. ‘What’s your name?’

3. ‘You’s on MySpace?’

When he delivered the third question, I got the giggles and starting thinking about what a cultural impact social networks are having on young people and mused over how I wanted to incorporate this conversation into a blog post.

He was obviously trying to figure out a way to connect with me, and contact through a social network is a great way to check someone out. You can read their profile, view photos and discern their likes and interests. I found it interesting that he didn’t ask me for my phone number, which is a much more direct point of connection, whereas MySpace provides a softer connection.

I then realized that he was still waiiting for me to answer him.

I smiled and told him I wasn’t on MySpace, and he seemed to take the hint that I wasn’t interested in him. I carried on walking and marveled at the cultural impact the Web is having on the way people communicate with one another.