MySpace: yes, and your point?

[tamaranth]

A rather patronising article on the BBC Magazine about the rise of MySpace. ("Perhaps the biggest headache anyone with a couple of hundred mates needs to get their head around is how to manage their Christmas card list.") But what they're describing doesn't seem much different to LiveJournal or any of the less formal, more community-based blogging sites.

So ... tell me about MySpace. Why should I know about it? And has the bloke from the Beeb missed the point?

Comments

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

The only thing I know about MySpace is that Rupert Murdoch owns it.
Which is possibly enough.

it's a networking place

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

very popular among people who are in bands, or who want to be in bands, or be DJs or whatever -- it's got supersmooth music features (comparatively) which is really its only USP -- it looks ugly, has that friendster popularity contest thing, and the adverts! ugh! -- but, for people in a band who don't want to maintain their own website, its an easy solution and plugs you straight into a social network which is music-orientated. The download/friend-counter makes them feel instantly popular, too. LJ's busy developing some music features itself to try and catch up.

In the meantime:

"Any philosopher or psychologist will tell you that close friendships with more half-a-dozen people is not possible, says Mark Vernon, author of the Philosophy of Friendship."

I have more people than that in my immediate family, guys. Get a grip....

Re: it's a networking place

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

"Any philosopher or psychologist will tell you that close friendships with more half-a-dozen people is not possible, says Mark Vernon, author of the Philosophy of Friendship."

I have more people than that in my immediate family, guys.

Yeah, but are they close friends?

hmmm,

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

fair enough. Only four of them are. But that leaves me with only two close friendships left! Who should I chose?

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

My impression is that it's like LJ but used a lot by teens. Last article I read was directed at parents telling them to stay aware of what their kids are posting on MySpace (concerns about sexually naive kids and predators). Which also seemed to be a skewed story, since I doubt that's primarily how MySpace is used.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

yeh it's the big teen thing.
Apparently it's compulsory to post a picture of yourself! I think I prefer LJ.

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

For some of us, that would be a Bad Thing!
Oh yeah and this (http://www.nothingnice.com/index.php?pageNum_Recordset2=261)!

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I have myspace because there are bands I'm interested in that use it for pages. I don't think I have any friends (boo hoo) that aren't bands.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

how different is it in feel to LJ, community-wise? Would you recommend it for a media blog, f'rinstance?

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

It feels totally different to me. All the pages are dead ugly, people randomly chat me up in email, all sorts of stuff. Different.

[perlmonger.livejournal.com]

danah boyd (http://www.zephoria.org/) is the person to read for that one. Try here (http://www.danah.org/papers/AAAS2006.html) or here (http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2005/11/02/growing_up_in_a.html) - there's more but those are the pieces I've del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/skydancer)'ed.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

oooh, interesting. Especially that it's being banned by some schools -- though I think that sounds more like a knee-jerk response than anything specific to MySpace, or indeed anything reasoned and rational.

surliminal wrote something a few days back about what if LJ had been around when we were teenagers. Way cool, I said: but I was thinking about the way I use LJ, the access I have to LJ, now: not the censored, protected access that would probably have been the rule at home, school and library. (And has been the rule at various places of employment.)