i love this post! i know exactly who you are talking about and i am kind of disappointed in myself that i didn't investigate the profile more in depth. you make a number of really interesting points. the most relevant one being that we don't care who is looking at our information.
without rushing to a gross generalization i would like to counter with saying that i believe that we do in fact care who is seeing, reading, and stalking our information. more importantly we want it to be seen. the "millenials" as this generation has been bred to idolize movie (jolie)/rock(cyrus)/porn(hilton)/nothing (hilton again) stars.
In the few decades that we have been alive we have experienced almost debilitating advancements in technology and communications. everywhere anyone goes these days it's mtv, or fusetv, all the time. we are constantly exposed to the new face of the even newer pop star. we are made to believe that this pop star is just like us, only with four million times more talent, potential, and usually make up sponsorships. but more importantly, they have more fans (read: friends). more people know them than us! why? beyond the obvious millions that record labels and branding companies invest in them, they do things and are seen in everything they do. their intimacies aren't their own. their inside jokes are outside and visible to all. they don't get in trouble for them and we want that same invulnerability.
we want those massive crowds of adoring fans and we want the rush of adrenaline of having our souls literally bared for all too see. we want to be seen, it's almost like it's in our blood now to seek the lime light. (everyone is a winner! you are SO special!) myspace and facebook give regular people like you and me the tools to make others the voyeurs we want watching us. why do young girls take pictures of themselves in mirrors to make themselves look sexier, hotter, and/or slimmer than they are? what drives them? the very picture and act of taking this specific picture itself is beyond full of metaphor and material for analysis. however, when it comes down to the bare bones of it all, the image was produced to be seen. why else post it?
we want the feeling of people wanting to see us. the pictures we post on myspace and facebook are the carrot in front of the horse, making us want more, hoping that the pictures we find on the other side of that profile to be more revealing and controversial than the next. the information we put up about our selves is there for other people to educate them selves about us. we want nothing more than for people to like us, love us, and stalk our very being because, let's face it, we all want to be movie/rock/porn/nothing stars.
