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Monday Apr 10, 2006
Is MySpace just a fad?
It's hard to pick up a paper (or click on one) these days without reading another story about the "phenomenon" of social networking websites. Mostly, the stories revolve around the moral panic that comes with any innovation that young people get and older people (including most journalists) don't. This frightens the pants off parents, editors and politicians. Which, as an aside, is a Good Thing.
So what are we actually talking about?
Hugely popular websites such as MySpace (65 million registered users, worldwide), Facebook, FaceParty and Bebo offer their users the chance to meet people, chat, comment on bands, movies and anything else in their lives. The metaphor often used is that of the town square (or more realistically, the local bus stop). It's somewhere where young people can hang out with their mates, chat and maybe, just maybe, hook up with a new partner - but that's not the main purpose for most.
(As an aside, there are also many 'grown up' versions of these sites, such as Linked In, which basically work on the same principle but are more tailored to getting a new job than getting laid. So of course, they're not in the news much.)
The criticism of MySpace, et al, is that they are unsafe, anarchic free-for-alls; that our young, innocent children are walking blindly into a den of sex maniacs, paedophiles and drug dealers. If only it was this exciting. If anything, MySpace strikes a blow against those who see user generated content as the future. Most of it is drivel. But this is also the point. It might be drivel to you or I, but that's because we don't get it and it wasn't written by a friend of ours. To those involved, it's a great opportunity to think creatively and hang out with your friends.
The question remains though: is this a fad or here to stay? NewsCorp obviously hope so as they try to figure out how to monetise MySpace.
Already, some journalists are touting an end. "MySpace is over", claimed The Observer at the weekend (strangely suggesting that the "new" place to be is FaceParty, a site which has been popular with our users for about five years). In some ways, The Observer is right. Just a couple of years back, Friendster was the place to be. It's not any more.
The best insight you'll get on this is from Danah Boyd, a PhD student in America who writes often about these sites. On the question of whether MySpace is a fad, she points out that different generations look for different solutions:
"The primary value (of MySpace) right now has to do with identity production and sharing, practices that are more critical to certain populations at certain times in their lives and it is possible that "growing up" will be marked by leaving MySpace (both for the teens and the 20-somethings). It is also possible that getting on MySpace will be marked as "uncool" by the next generation (in the same way that fashion changes across generations)."
In the meantime, MySpace rolls on and spawns associated sites, the weirdest for me being MyDeathSpace, where MySpace members who have died are remembered.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 1:52 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]