Boy howdy, am I glad I worked in corporate accounting for 3 years. I just flew through nearly 2 months of backed-up bookkeeping in record time. In less time than it took me to watch Sixteen Candles, actually.
So in my last blog entry, I mentioned that Myspace was one of my favorite wastes of time. Would you believe I've received more emails about this than from any other entry I've written? (Well, okay, maybe not more than the one about me doing just about anything for twenty-five bucks an hour.) Everyone wants to tell me how much they also love Myspace.
Maybe I'm treading into Rex territory here, but I can't help but ponder what it is about Myspace that we love so much. Pretty much all my friends are there, but what's the reason? It's free? Nah, every other social networking site is free, too. You can upload lots of pictures? You can do that anywhere. Maybe one of the biggest reasons everyone likes it is because of one of the main reasons the site was created in the first place: music. I've read a couple of interviews with bands who credit Myspace for their success and notoriety. Just check out this Wired article that pops up first on a Google search for "Myspace+bands". Plug the same search term into Google News and you've got an hour's worth of reading material on the subject.
I've been on other social networking sites, but I think Myspace is the best. Nerve changed its formerly kick-ass community format a few years ago and now it's just lonelies trolling for cyber action. I tried really hard to use Orkut, but all the bugs got so frustrating that I gave up. (It's been so long since I've even logged in, I can't remember my password to delete my dead account.) Friendster got overblown and lost all meaning of a six-degrees-of-separation site when everyone friended everyone else.
Not that there aren't friend whores on Myspace, because there certainly are. I myself prefer to maintain a little purity in my profile by only friending people that I know and bands that I like. It's just cooler that way.
I'm glad others subscribe to my standards of social networking on Myspace. I was talking to Janelle on the phone one night, as I often am, and she was going through her Myspace friend requests. "I still have Apryl Electra pending friendship," she says. "I dunno, I'm not that crazy about her music. Besides, she has enough friends." A few minutes later, she's checking out the profile of some guy who sent her a friend request, as well as an email calling her a cutie. "He has 94 friends. They're all girls. Yeah right, buddy, I don't think so."
I end up spending so much time on Myspace because it's actually pretty fun communicating with friends in various ways. You can send them a Myspace email. You can instant message them. You can comment on their Myspace blogs, or vice versa. You can post a broadcast bulletin for them. You can create groups in various categories of interest and invite others to join. The most fun way to communicate with your friends on Myspace seems to be by posting profile comments. Bonus points for sexual innuendos or inside jokes. Extra bonus points for both at the same time. That's the concensus, anyway.
I tried to have some fun with the Top 8 friends concept, but no one wanted to play along. See, you can move people into the first 8 slots so that others see these people right away when they view your profile. (Hey look, all my best friends are hot chicks.) Sure, they can easily view the rest of your friends, but the Top 8 are the ones that really matter. Or are they? I decided to ditch my best friends a while back and move random friends in and out of my Top 8. I was hoping to cause internet drama. But no one noticed, so I gave up.
Now my Top 8 is a mix of 4 hotties I adore, 3 very close friends, and Justin Caesar. Don't ask.
Anyway, Myspace occupies a ton of my time. I can listen to all kinds of bands for hours. I can leave lacivious comments on my friends' profiles. I can recruit people to join my Survivors of Brian Venable Nudity group (of which Brian is a member; that kills me). If I'm bored, I'll even humor the occasional email from a random guy that wants to meet me, despite having been denied my Myspace friendship. Last week, I noticed that Myspace has a classifieds section identical to Craigslist. It looks pretty unused right now (for Minneapolis, anyway), but when people start to post on it, well, there goes another hour in my day.
I wanna know what everybody else does on Myspace. Business networking? Playing interactive games? Looking for hotties? Trying to get as many friends as ForBiddeN? (Good luck, she's up to 680,077 as of the time of this post.)
So hit me up and tell me what you do on Myspace. Just don't try and friend me.
Here is what usually happens when I got to myspace.... Check on my profile views, see if there are any interesting bulletins from anyone. Randomly click on a friend (I'm w/you, "real" friends only) check out their friends for mutual acquaintances or people whom look interesting. Laugh about any ridiculous pictures of girls wearing tiny outfits or guys w/o their shirts off. Check my high school and college for any new add's...Seems like all the alumni are from the class of 2002, doesn't really seem like true alumni to me, considering they were in grade school when I graduated. Feel old and log out.
Posted by: carrie | January 03, 2006 at 11:53 AM
Oh yeah, I've found a few friends via my alumni group.
One interesting feature Janelle pointed out is that you can see when others have read emails from you.
Posted by: Alexis | January 03, 2006 at 05:13 PM
I really like that feature. It lets me see when someone just didn't notice the message and when they're actively ignoring me. It's just a time saver. You know me - busy busy busy.
Posted by: Jordan | January 03, 2006 at 06:25 PM
I started using it because I was missing invites to events from another social circle (it's like having another BBS) and then got really into it because of the band thing. Surprising, since I'm soooo not the Music Girl.
But it lets me see if I like a band without having to buy anything or put up with some grinning, nodding friend sitting right next to me going, "See? Yeah? You know? It's good, eh?" Also, MySpace recommends bands, and that can lead me on a goosechase through the whole place and I spend all day looking at bands.
The school thing is pretty cool now that I got my high school added to the list. (Yes, fellow MPAers, that was all me.)
And, occasionally, someone worth talking to finds me and says hello.
Posted by: Voo | January 04, 2006 at 10:41 AM
Why won't the wallpaper scroll with the page content!?!? This part of MySpace drives me insane!
Posted by: Anthony | January 04, 2006 at 11:20 AM
Yeah, sorry no myspace whore here! FYI: That fellow still has not deleted his friend request. You can do that you know. I think it's a totally rad feature. It allows you to save face when some clown ass doesn't grant your wish for friendship and leaves you pending for days or weeks. I am going to see how long Mr. "Looking for the Right Girl" will wait out my friendship in pending status. It's a fun game! I'll keep you posted...I believe right now he is at week two. Anyone else wanna play?!
Posted by: janelle | January 04, 2006 at 10:53 PM
I avoid it entirely. Blogs generally and Myspace in particular are basically draining the creative output of an entire generation and creating in return only a mountain of personal data to be mined, harvested, and sold by a few disreputable insiders.
It amazes me that thinking people give so much information via myspace posts to people with a history of engaging in very dubious business practices and ethics that you would never even dream of giving them a bit of personal information in real life conversation.
Posted by: Not2Sure | January 05, 2006 at 06:38 PM
Not2Sure: I just read the article you link to and fail to see why it would deter the majority of people from using Myspace. Companies using demographic information to sell to advertisers? Say it isn't so! And users agreeing to keep the content clean on their Myspace profiles? Great! I myself reported someone just last week for having an extremely offensive profile that broke the rules of Myspace.
As far as blogging on Myspace, there are plenty of other places on the WWW to exercise one's right to free speech. Who cares if you can't do it there? I have to wonder, too, with 40 million members, does anyone else really care?
It's just a business, I'm not sure why anyone would get so uptight about rules and conduct, especially when the user signs an agreement.
Your statement about blogs in general, well, that's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. I couldn't even begin to parse that sentence to where it makes sense. I'm not sure I even understand it.
Posted by: Alexis | January 05, 2006 at 07:03 PM
You will in a few years. The vast majority of blogs and myspace pages are the World Wide Waste of Time's version of IRC channels with extremely high latency.
The only way blogs, even the few good ones, at all decrease the entropy of the information sphere is ironically by engendering private not public communications, (e.g., people post a comment on a blog and email the owner). This creation of an actual real relationship with its potential profit to the geist happens so rarely as to not be worth the high associated cost of attention deficit and the opportunity cost of lost time. Blogging actually has a chilling inverse effect when it comes to introducing new perspectives or creating broader communities.
RE: Myspace article. I'm afraid I don't understand what point you're making about myspace and censorship. Does the linked article even mention censorship? I think that it summarizes the somewhat shady business dealings that the founders and leaders of myspace have engaged or been associated with in the past including fraud, theft and the promulgation of borderline and sometimes illegal spy and adware.
Perhaps now that they have struck the gold mine they have decided to keep their nose clean, so to speak. If you can trust them to stick to their privacy policy in the complete absence of any regulation or enforcement knowing their very disreputable background, that's your choice. I certainly haven't heard of any direct violations. The shoddy code for myspace.com is however routinely exploited by outside farmers if the company itself is not harvesting data (which I doubt).
Do you remember how easy it was for a script kiddie a few months ago in the course of a few hours to add himself as a friend to about 80% of myspace userbase forcing a complete shutdown? That's nothing compared to what was going on with jscript hacks before.
I gave up some time ago blindly trusting corporations even those involved in actual legitimate businesses in the real world to stick to their policies regarding personal data let alone shady internet opportunists or even worse government agencies. I was going to turn all those nouns in the previous sentence into links to episodes of malfeasance but you already know. Most Americans do. They for some reason don't seem to care or think it affects them. It's bizarre how easy we accept the discounting and commodization of our personal space even though at the same time we use it to underpin basic legal rights such as the right to legal abortion. Don't even get me started on the castration of HIPAA prosecutorial power this year. The rest of the world snickers when Americans mention, and mention quite often and proudly, a so-called "right to privacy."
The US government monitoring phone conversations and library patrons to *ahem* "find terrorists"?!?! OMG!! Burn them. Much gnashing of teeth for a day or two but no real traction. A telecommunications company monitoring phone conversations and tracking GPS positions and giving you a free phone and no charge for unlimited service in "return." OMG!! A bargain! FREE FREE FREE! Tell your friends.
Don't get me wrong. I don't have anything against the founders of myspace or that telecommunications company that will make a killing. If they stick to their published business model, myspace is engaged in the US at least, in a perfectly legal exchange of cheap bandwidth and commodity pc server space for your extremely valuable personal information at an absurdly profitable margin. Those 40 million people you mention however I'd wager have no idea how much they are being ripped off. They are paying the equivalent of hundreds of dollars in exchange for getting a shiny piece of aluminum foil and are I would argue at some risk of losing much more.
I think that you left out another way you and others seem to make heavy use of myspace and other blogs for: To drive traffic here and to your business site. I say, good for you! and good for the other commercial artists and businesses co-opting myspace! You're being fleeced less than most of that 40 million.
DISCLAIMER: I have a myspace profile but have never hooked up with any hot 18-25 year-olds through it and therefore can be easily dismissed as acting out in jealous anger and sexual frustration. Or whatever.
Posted by: Not2Sure | January 05, 2006 at 11:46 PM
You will in a few years.
Well, do tell.
I'm afraid I don't understand what point you're making about myspace and censorship. Does the linked article even mention censorship?
Yes, the it talks about content censorship and how it's a serious issue for free speech advocates. This was the only point I took away from the article.
[the article] summarizes the somewhat shady business dealings that the founders and leaders of myspace have engaged or been associated with in the past including fraud, theft and the promulgation of borderline and sometimes illegal spy and adware.
From the article: "it has yet to be documented anyone has ever received spyware or adware from the MySpace company itself."
I just want to make sure we stay on topic, here.
As for the rest of your argument, I'm sorry, but I really think it's irrelevant, and a stretch.
Posted by: Alexis | January 06, 2006 at 12:08 AM
Ah I see now the two sentences in that article regarding censoring. Yeah, I agree who cares. Myspace is such a center of important speech that needs protection. /rolls eyes
Schools everywhere are starting to blacklist the domain because it is such a wasteland and no one cares.
"I certainly haven't heard of any direct violations."
My previous post doesn't rely on any false allegations that myspace delivers illegal or trace software at all. The point is about the risks of trusting what myspace does with the data that is out of your control once it enters their database not about what they do with cpu cycles you do control.
Until recently it was relatively easy for the knowledgeable to access your "private" content on myspace as well as redirect it using simple cross-site scripting and other techniques until Samy pulled his idiot move. This rather cavalier attitude towards security and obviously sloppy work combined with past questionable behavior from people in leadership positions is indicative to me of how they view the nature of the relationship you have to your posted content: basically none.
As a result I have little trust that they care much about adhering to a privacy policy when no one is looking behind closed doors.
And what argument is irrelevant or a stretch? That people are being fleeced by myspace? Just because you aren't paying for something doesn't mean it isn't costing you. I don't use myspace for the same reason I dislike real estate agents: I don't like being taken advantage of for the easy grossly marked up profit of others.
That's just math. You are getting about what, a few fully costed dollars a month in hosting from myspace if we're being generous? Definitely more if you are one of the minority of heavy power users but the income generated by heavy users scales with cost almost linearly in that model. Care to wager how much flat out revenue you're generating for myspace a month in ad views? That is in addition to the less tangible but extremely valuable good will created by enhancing myspace's position as a market trend indicator for 12-18 and 18-27 by posting content and spending time there. Especially given recent trends towards age compression marketing and "aspirational" purchasing, that's a bankable asset.
The protection for your data with no advocate or sheperding force is anonymity in numbers or that no one cares to know that who people were sleeping with or what they were sleeping on last month. Neither of which are true anymore. Search platforms can find it and commerce is interested.
There's a reason myspace was paid nearly 3/4 billion dollars US for the property and why they fought tooth and nail not to be forced to sell even at that ridiculous sum of money. It wasn't because the powers that be think internet culture needs more giddy sexual innuendo and garage bands or because Fox wanted to manipulate the minds of impressionable youth.
I do hope the future proves me to be paranoid and overly distrustful. It would be a refreshing change of pace.
Posted by: Not2Sure | January 06, 2006 at 03:03 AM
Girl Friday is the new Slashdot!
Posted by: Rex | January 06, 2006 at 02:40 PM
Hey, my sister sent me to this page. Thanx for the free publicity. I wish your link would have worked.
BTW, I wouldn't want to be friends on myspace (thanx industry zine for the feature!) with anyone who doesn't really care for my music.
(PS, Janelle, whoever you are - I have a record label working for me so most likely I didn't personally add you... I'm not too crazy about Lisa Loeb or Cat Stevens. I think they kinda suck. Hope you dig that new "#1 Single" show.)
Look for me in February's issue of Girlfriends Magazine and on the Converse website in the upcoming year.
Peace and Namaste in 2006, Apryl E.
Don't forget to buy a CD!
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