Anyone can get on Facebook now, which means anyone can see your profile. MySpace has been public since its inception, while Facebook used to be exclusive to the college community. I’m not the most technologically savvy person, but I can figure out how to set up a profile on both of these sites. I don’t have a MySpace site, but I am a part of the Facebook community. I have friends on MySpace, and I see few differences in the two communities. On MySpace, you can color and add music to your page. On Facebook, you can add large amounts of pictures.

Both sites allow users to comment on each other’s pages, comment on pictures and post information – however personal a person chooses to get.

People waste their lives away checking the sites religiously, just to see if something has changed. Maybe the number of profile views jumped from 496 to 500. For some people, this is a day-defining experience. On a particularly boring day, my roommate got fed up with her computer when her Facebook Feed hadn’t changed during the 10-minute trip to the grocery store.

I do remember those days. The habitual Facebook-checking and updating in its initial weeks, even months, consumed my daily life. My friends who introduced this site to me in those precious first weeks warned me that I would try to look up my best friend from first grade, but I did not listen.

Looking back, I could have gotten so much done with that wasted time. The amount of time I spent on Facebook would equal the amount of time it would take to learn the basics of a foreign language or write a thesis.

Facebook and MySpace are products of procrastination most college students could do without.

There are those on Facebook who have created groups to protest its very existence.

“Get out of your celebrity fantasy life and forget about every stupid aspect of everyone else’s life because yours is too boring,” boasts one group. (The content of that statement was edited for language, as the writer may recognize his work.)

Why would anyone, anywhere, ever want to join a group titled “Elmo is my Hero” or various groups about procrastination? Seriously. Don’t waste your life joining Facebook groups. Go read a book or write a short essay on your own beliefs.

A great man once said: “Have no regrets when you’re old.” So when you get old, wishing for a longer life, you’ll probably look back and say, “I wish I didn’t waste my life on stupid sites on the Internet like MySpace and Facebook.” So don’t.

Jennifer Boone is a senior news-editorial major from Irving.