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So I signed up for an account over at MyYearbook.com a few months back because a long time acquaintance from my college days was there and had sent me an invitation. I didn’t do much with the page until recently as there’s a couple of things about this site that just…freak me out.

First of all, for those of you not familiar with it, MyYearbook is a social networking site similar to MySpace. You set up a profile (like MySpace), you get a collection of “friends” (like MySpace) and you can spruce up your profile with pictures and music and links (like MySpace). Basically this place is MySpace but, in MyYearbook’s words, isn’t as “creepy.”

Well, I dunno about that. Yes, MySpace has taken a beating over the past couple of years for various things but at least MySpacers can’t “own” other MySpacers. At MyYearbook, you can be “owned” by others and the whole “own” thing just freaks me out. Anyone can arbitrarily buy you at any moment, provided they have the “lunch money” to do it. (You earn “lunch money” by putting together your profile, logging in each day, referring friends, ect.)

I haven’t figured out yet what the point is of being owned by anyone but I’ve been bought and sold twice already.

Yeah, bought and sold. I mean…that is just weird! All I can think of is the old Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie “Road to Morocco.” While travelling across Arabia, Crosby ends up selling Hope to a slave trader to get some money. Now that’s being owned.

I’m sorry but nobody puts baby in a corner! So, I’ve now opted out of the whole being owned thang and I’ve started sprucing up my profile there to continue with my shameless self promotion.

The site really makes a big deal about being safe and discouraging cyber-bullying and all. Which is great, I’m all for that and I’m sure their efforts are good and true. But they really oughta reconsider that “owned” thing.

And I’ve already come across one user who’s just as creepy as anything ever seen on MySpace. His profile stated something about enjoying dipping a certain part of his anatomy into the toilet.

Charming.

Here’s the other thing about MyYearbook that I find…odd. Relationship status can be listed as the usual (single, committed, engaged, married, ect… Mine says “leave blank.”) Anyway, if the person has “married” for their status there’s a link to click next to it that says “notify when single.”

So much for encouraging the sanctity of marriage!

As it is, the place seems to really want to foster an atmosphere of safety and non-creepiness. I do, sincerely, wish them luck with that.  Because there’s all kinds of weirdos out there and they’ll find their way into the site easily enough.

Heck, I did…