You're just a clique away from MySpace's `Top 8'

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Marc Ramirez
Found on: belleville.com

SEATTLE - In the online world of MySpace, her best friend kept messaging a boy that Jasmine Gervais didn't like. Before long, the two friends argued.

Then her friend did the unthinkable: In the "Heroes" portion of her MySpace profile, she replaced Jasmine's photo with, as Jasmine puts it, "a picture of this stupid boy." With that, Jasmine, a 16-year-old student at Seattle's Center School, moved her friend from the No. 1 spot in her Top 8 MySpace friends to No. 8. Barely clinging to honored status! But then her friend did the same.

What next? "I deleted her," Jasmine says. "I thought it was hilarious. She called me up, screaming, `What are you thinking? That's so bitchy.' And then she hung up on me."

FITTING IN ONLINE

In MySpace, everyone can hear you scream. And amid the self-conscious and peer-pressured terrain that is teendom, MySpace - and the "Top 8" friends shown on one's main profile page - can broadcast your place in the hierarchy more bluntly and publicly than ever.

"For some people, the Top 8 is like a ranking scale of who you like the most to who you somewhat sort of like," says Seattle student Joanne Nguyen, 16. "It's just like high school."

The social-networking site popular with youths lets users create their own profile pages, including an invitation-only gallery of their friends' profile photos. The top friends get the top space. But being put there, or being left out, can be taken as a public statement about where one stands, making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside - or like you totally want to throw a hissy fit.