Contacting all Fresno parents: Ten local teenagers want to do U a favor.
A documentary by the teens tries to answer a question burning in parental brains: Why does my kid care so much about MySpace?
The short film, made by members of the Sunnyside Teen Council, will premiere tonight at Terronez Middle School. There will also be a panel discussion including two of the filmmakers, a library official and a school official.
The teens who made the documentary, which is less than 10 minutes long, wanted to explain to adults why MySpace is so popular.
They know adults read reports of abuses of the site, including accounts of predators and lurid teen content.
"They like to judge it based on what they hear and see in the media," said senior Jeremiah Boyd of Fresno. "It's just a place to hang out with friends."
The teens started work on their film in August by interviewing people at the Sunnyside Regional Library about their MySpace use. They include information from the people surveyed — a group of about 60 who use the site and 40 who don't.
Nikki Osuna, a sophomore at Gateway High, said MySpace is a way for people to express what they're proud of, including favorite bands, pictures of actors and personal stuff. Her page features the band Evanescence, which she has loved for years.
"It's like a flag hanging up. Each flag has meaning," she said.
J.E. Young Academic Center student Rachel Wilson said MySpace lets people get to know one another on different levels.
"Just looking at me face to face, you might not know that I like Tupac. If you go on my site, there's a picture of him," she said.
Vincent Ramirez, a senior at Teilman Community Day School, said he learned a lot about computers by using MySpace. He said some people learn how to type by building a site.
People on MySpace inevitably run into other people they know or knew in the past, said Brianna Wilson, an eighth-grader at Edison Computech. High school graduates can search by school and find old classmates.
"It's a good way to communicate without actually having to go to the 20-year anniversary," she said.
Sunnyside Young Adult Librarian Lisa Lindsay, who worked with the teens to make the documentary, said she discovered it was easier to use MySpace to contact the young filmmakers than to call them.
The teens admit they're fans of MySpace, but they understand it has hazards. Nikki said she keeps her profile in private mode, limiting information about herself to those who actually know her.
"I don't want some complete stranger knowing where I live or knowing what I look like," she said.
At the least, Lindsay said, the filmmakers hope their project will get parents and teens talking. The California Council for the Humanities funded the project, giving students about $2,500 for a camera and software. The teens used a little leftover money to buy an iPod nano as a door prize for tonight's event.
Lindsay said she has grown to appreciate MySpace through the project. She created a site for research purposes, and she's still using it.
"My screen name is Lisa," she admitted. "I'm boring."
"Seriously? It's Lisa?" Brianna asked.
Many MySpace users adopt colorful monikers they change on a whim.
Vincent joked that, in a moment of conceit, he named himself "Fresno's Finest." Rachel said she's "Banana Rama."
The reason?
"I just like bananas."
The reporter can be reached at cvance@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6197.
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