Every time I open my browser to search something on the internet, the same thing happens. I put the cursor into the address box and begin to type in an address, and something strange happens. No matter what site I am attempting to get to, I still type in the same thing… “www.piczo.com/.” I admitted this problem to my friends only to find out they were having the same experience. So what is it that makes Piczo sites so addictive and how are they affecting the youth of today?

If you don’t know, Piczo is a free online photo-sharing website that anyone over the age of thirteen can sign up for. Piczo will automatically provide you with a friends list, an about me page, and a photo album. There are default colors and page lists for the beginners. Experienced Piczo users are known for creating HTML codes, blinkies and sometimes downright irritating designs. You can search through thousands of layouts, icons and quotes. However, the most attractive feature of Piczo is that anyone can access your site and your pictures from anywhere in the world.

The most obvious issue with Piczo is the fact that anyone can take your picture and put it on their site. Most people are not shy at all, and will allow themselves to be photographed doing illegal or sometimes embarrassing acts. It has come to the point that it is automatically assumed that if someone is taking your picture it will end up on a site somewhere. Another photographic issue is how people keep their sites up and running without even owning a camera. This is where the “picture stealers” come in to play. They are the people that right-click and save pictures from other sites and claim them as their own. Piczo realized this was an issue and offered a “right-click protection” option. This however, did not solve the problem because die-hard Piczo fans found a way to beat the block.

The second biggest issue that comes from these photo-sharing sites is the guestbook. It was created as a place where visitors of your site could type their comments. Unfortunately, guestbooks became a place where visitors could cowardly and anonymously write rude comments about your pictures, your friends or what you did on the weekend. Guestbook trashing and bashing is normally followed by all of your friends writing back about how stupid or ugly the person was that wrote the nasty comment and how great of a person you are. In my opinion this is not a very healthy practice.

Piczo is constantly reminding you how many friends you have or that you don’t have. People can either create a list from the menu or write in a text box of all their friends’ names. So there you are, searching through the list from A to Z, looking for who is on the list and who isn’t. If this isn’t bad enough, Piczo rewards the amount of hits you get. The more hits you get the more pictures you are allowed to upload. How are people to feel when they compare their 60 hits to another person’s 60,000?

Next are the profile pages. This is a place created by users to provide information about themselves. Honestly, the information varies. It can be a simply their name, age and sex or could even go so far as to tell street addresses and weight. There is no doubt that this can quickly become dangerous, with the growing number of internet predators. There is also sometimes a journal or a “confession” page. The confession page normally outlines meaningless or very personal facts about a person.

One thing about Piczo that scares me is how it can eliminate the need to actually meet someone. You can find yourself recognizing someone, only to realize that you’ve only ever seen them in pictures. In this way Piczo seems almost like a corny celebrity magazine. I’ve even heard people referred to in real life as their Piczo addresses. Addresses can be considered the Piczo equivalent of J.Lo’s and Bennifers.

Judging by the very long list of Piczo sites in my internet history, I would say that Piczo is mainly run by girls, but is certainly not limited to females. Lots of boys have sites but the focus is different. Their sites are normally more about sports or music. From talking to a lot of different people I would say that both boys and girls look at these sites. There is even frequent use by parents. Kids from small towns can rack up thousands of hits in a few short months.

With what seems to be a lot of downfalls you might wonder why Piczo is still up and running. I believe it is because Piczo is the ultimate form of gossip. Gossip has always been a huge part of teen culture and now it is more accessible than ever. Not only can we call our friends to tell them about the weekend but with Piczo we can look at photographic proof. It is no wonder this is one of the most popular and addictive online activities of today.

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