Whoa. MySpace announced that it will now begin catering to politicians trying to raise money. You’re kidding, right? Unfortunately… no.

“MySpace will let U.S. politicians and non-profit groups raise money for their campaigns through its popular social networking site in a service developed with online payments company PayPal.

The tool creates a space for soliciting donations on the MySpace pages of U.S. presidential candidates and non-profit groups, allowing a user to make the contribution from their own PayPal account, or create one quickly.”

Am I the only person who finds this to be absolutely absurd? You bet… MySpace will make a ton of money off of it. They will purportedly use it to make the site better for the rest of us. But to me, it’s now ruined.

I admit to being a MySpace junkie. I started my page on a lark over a year ago. I wanted to see what the hype was. After connecting with several old friends from HS and college, I was hooked. I even admit I enjoy playing with different backgrounds and such… trying to find the right combination that is “me”.

To turn a social networking site into a political moneymaker is just insane. Those of us who use it regularly to connect with other people do NOT want to see more ads from politicians that we turn off when they come on our televisions. We don’t want to be inundated by ads asking for money we don’t have to give in the first place. There won’t be ads intruding on our personal Space? Bull. I don’t believe that for a minute, and neither should you.

Mark my words. MySpace will change in a big way because of this… and not for the better.

[tags]myspace, politics, fundraising, social network, friends[/tags]