My sister tells me that there are two kinds of people in our generation — those with MySpace pages and those without. I am a hybrid. I have a page, but I also have my reservations.

Online journal site MySpace, founded in 2004, has more than 70 million users. LiveJournal, Xanga and Facebook have their followings, but none of them attracted 36 million visitors in February or was the target of a $580 million takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

I created my profile sometime last year while covering a story about a teenager. A quick Google search revealed that she had a MySpace profile. After logging on, I was allowed momentary entry into her life.

Immediately I knew what she looked like and who her last boyfriend was. Information that usually takes a while to glean was right there on a colorful, artistic Web page designed to her liking.

Some of my friends think MySpace is immature, while others stay logged on all day. Many of the pages are creative expressions of one's life, complete with custom music, movies, pictures and prose. I have updated my site with pictures and lists of what I'm reading, but I don't log on every day.

The online world appeals to the voyeur in us. It can be as dangerous as the real world. Sexual predators on MySpace have been caught in Hawai'i and on the Mainland. The opportunity to know intimate details about strangers has led to identity theft and physical stalking.

MySpace lets you connect with friends and family. A colleague joined to monitor her 14-year-old daughter's activities. I check up on my little sister's suitors.

Having a cyberlife can have real-world consequences, depending on what you share.

I know a human resource worker on the Mainland who will check the MySpace profiles of potential job candidates for drug references or evidence of illegal behavior.

And instant, visual communication can exacerbate personal problems.

This year a friend in Seattle lost a domestic relationship and a buddy in New York suffered a broken marriage, both caused in part because the dumper was carrying on with someone who initiated contact on MySpace. Both of the people who walked are now dating the person they met on MySpace.

Call me an old-school guy, but I can't forge new friendships on the Web.

MySpace is a playful way to keep up with or to find old friends but hardly a medium to tether a life to. Unless some lovely young (of legal age) ladies can convince me otherwise.

Reach Peter Boylan at pboylan@honoluluadvertiser.com.