Is MySpace Dead?

7Aug/087

I just don't care that much about MySpace anymore and I'm not entirely sure why. I'll admit I'm obsessed with LinkedIn - and for some reason it seems like everyone is on Facebook these days. So maybe MySpace is just losing the battle for my attention. The whole MySpace interface feels so silly in comparison. A lot of the profiles are splattered with retarded colors, tons of auto-run videos and songs, and dumb animated gifs, while Facebook plainly focuses on individuals and not artistic expression.

I guess I can attribute all that to old age. I don't care enough to play around creatively, and I definitely don't have the time to leave comments on everyone's pages. The other sites just feel easier. My 32-year-old brain doesn't have the capacity and youthful energy to keep up with the MySpace pace.

And here's the other thing. I used MySpace a lot two or three years ago. During that stretch, I was in a certain social circle - before my divorce. I have lost touch with a lot of those friends (many of whom are still in my friends list). Playing around on MySpace is sort of like showing up at a party where there are a ton of people I haven't spoken to in a year. Still - I don't want to remove those friends from my list. As far as I know, we are still "friends" - at least in the sense that they are somewhat interested in what I'm up to these days (and vice versa). If I did happen to run into them at this imaginary party, they might even want to chat for a few minutes.

On that same note, the people in that group certainly know about this website. I have no idea if they are some of the 1000 plus daily visitors, but it's possible. Facebook on the other hand is somewhat new to me. I've had a profile for years, but I had left it nearly friendless and neglected. Now that I'm more active on that site, the friends list is more accurate as far as my current acquaintances, and it is devoid of those from my former life.

And then there's another strange phenomenon. Out of nowhere, people from my past have begun to find me on Facebook (not so much on MySpace). These are people from college, or high school, or even earlier. These people didn't know me as a guy who was married before. For all they know, my current wife is my first¹. So when those people say, "Hey, haven't heard from you in forever! How's everything going?" - I can respond, "Things are great! Living in Philly. Just got married. Work is going well. How have you been?" It's as if these old old friends have joined my very new friends in a weird mesh of a social circle that sort of skips a period of time.

That being said, my Facebook list is terribly short in comparison to my MySpace list. Though I'm not complaining. The connections I've made there recently are awesome. It's great to see some familiar faces from so long ago.

Alternatively, my list of LinkedIn connections is huge. That list is almost entirely comprised of professional connections. They aren't necessarily the type of people I'd let into my personal life. And for that matter, I don't think my Facebook friends would give two shits about my online resume.

So it all comes down to this: Should I give up on MySpace? I can see the value in retaining Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. But at what point do I cut the MySpace ties? Or maybe I'll compromise. I could make sure my profile is updated, strip my page of any content that needs to be changed regularly, and quit feeling obligated to comment on other people's pages. I'll let you know how this all ends up working out.

I realize I've buried the lead (as they say in the news business). I did in fact get married last week. I'll have more details later, but this post is about the possible death of MySpace. I didn't want to lose focus.

Tagged as: myspace, networking Leave a comment

Comments (7) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

sarah
August 8th, 2008 - 14:12

myspace sucks. i keep meaning to close my account, but i am lazy.
randi
August 8th, 2008 - 15:36

Quitting myspace was probably the best thing I could have done for myself in recent times. I was getting tons of unwanted attention from people I had no business associating with. It had become some weird, high-school level obsession and I realized I had to let that shit go and focus on adulthood. I’ve seriously noted the change since I hit “delete.”
JJ
August 8th, 2008 - 20:47

sarah:
I wish that was my only hesitation. I’m not lazy about it. I’m seriously conflicted. So much drama.

randi:
I envy you. After reading your comment, I began leaning toward closing my account. We’ll see…
Ry
August 11th, 2008 - 11:42

i agree with your assessment entirely. myspace is losing in social networking because of its clunky, unattractive, annoying pages that are controlled by the end user. in my opinion, myspace only has one redeeming factor that makes it worthwhile which is actually the reason it was created way back when. its great for visiting musician’s pages and listening to their new tracks, free downloads, etc. many musicians use myspace as their main internet presence and that is because it is easy for users to find information on an artist. stay on it at least for that reason and the codes
John Fowler
August 7th, 2009 - 01:35

I agree completely. I’m 29 now and have used to frequent myspace 3-4 years ago. Now that I’m more focused on building authentic and professional relationships, I’ve come to value Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Twitter. Myspace is toast to me because it simply doesn’t serve my purpose…
Anon Reader
August 12th, 2009 - 23:46

I started on Facebook when it was a baby and not even available to most colleges. So my roots are a factor in my preference – never got into myspace in the first place. But I did try it out and it mostly made me want to barf.

They way over did it with advertising bombardment and awful play on load songs and videos. This play on load garbage I could not handle as I have a stereo set up that is super sensitive to system volume. Whenever an artist only had his/her shit on myspace and I was forced to use the player that’s when it’d decide to not work. The out of control styling that would crash my browser, bloated interface, etc… These sort of things I can’t stand. Even that News Corp guy has gone on record admitting they blew it with too much advertising.

On top of everything, I don’t like Facebook that much at all either. It was fun when it was just colleges, but now it’s everything and everyone. it’s different. i always want to delete my account but i don’t. i can use it to look up people, but i only interact minimally and only when it’d be rude to ignore them. and sure as shit i don’t upload my photography to facebook either
Jo
October 3rd, 2009 - 04:27

I haven’t logged into my myspace account in alnost a year. I am very active on Facebook and Twitter, but myspace seems to have just lost its appeal to me. I started using myspace back in 2005 when it first came out. I’ll admit, I had a lot of fun with it and enjoyed adding different music and backgrounds to my profile, but I gradually got bored of it. I also hated not even being able to read anything on a lot of people’s profiles because of the insanely blinding graphics and backgounds that they had on there. Once I got started on Facebook in late 2006/early 2007, my myspace usage gradually began to decline until I eventually stopped using it all together. I haven’t logged into it since around Christmas of last year. I should probably delete my account, but I just don’t even go onto the myspace site anymore. My husband hasn’t logged into his in well over a year. He’s on FB and Twitter as well. Maybe I have just grown out of it. I was only about 24 when I first started using myspace and I just turned 28 last month. It seems that myspace is geared towards much younger and immature users. I honestly don’t know anyone who still uses it. Towards the end of my usage, I was getting bombarded with messages and friend requests from people who I didn’t even know. It really drove me crazy and was kind of creepy in my opinion.

I LOVE abolutely Facebook and I have A LOT more friends on there than I ever did on myspace. I have gotten back in touch with literally hundreds of old friends and classmates who I haven’t seen or heard from in many years, even a couple of my old favorite teachers! A lot of my family is also on Facebook, so that is where i am and where I will most likely stay. The layout is much more adult friendly and I don’t have to worry about clicking on someone’s profile and being blinded my some flashing and sparkling background or being deafened by super loud music on their page. My husband also just got me started on Twitter this past summer and I have to admit that it’s kind of fun!