MySpace - what it offers

“MySpace is like a tree –

you branch out and look at other spaces.
You don’t know how you got there… you just do.”

MySpace the latest trend in pop culture – a way to stay in the know and keep in touch with all things social. It is an evolution from the telephone, email as well as MSN. It is also considered by a few to be the Google of blog sites.

“EVERYONE” uses MySpace

but predominantly, it is younger people as well as musicians and their promoters.

By young people, it refers to teenagers, school students and university students. Although MySpace does have minimum age requirement of 14, some tweens do fudge the system and lie about their age to set up their own space.

For some, they believe the people who do use MySpace, have only done so to conform to the latest fad –

“like mobile phones, all kids have them.”

Musicians and promoters using the site do so to promote bands and recording artists. By doing this, musicians can try and make a name for themselves. It allows unknowns to have their music readily accessible – their music can be heard on a mass level. They can target their audience without the support of a record company.

On the other hand, established bands and artists can keep close relationships with their fans by keeping them up to date through their own space

The majority feel MySpace is all about TALKING TO PEOPLE – communication through the use of the comment feature.

Users are able to:

• Make new friends and keep in contact with old friends
  
• Inform people about important events such as parties, holidays and festivals. “It’s just convenient to write something about yourself and all your friends are updated.”


• Reach anyone in the world
  
• See what others are up to


• Cement friendships – by taking it to another level. Through MySpace users can show and see different sides of personalities




• Approach friendships in an easier manner – a pre bonding session which makes meeting each other the next time round that little bit easier
  
• Organise outings or events

A slight entertainment element too is involved:

• Keeping up to date with new music and gigs
  


• Looking at other people’s spaces and seeing what they are up to. Public spaces are very open, allowing anyone to have a look

“the fact that they don’t know I’m looking at their site makes it even better!”

Though it is overkill for some? Yes it is a site that enables users to express themselves, but how they do it can be an issue for some.

For those, MySpace is:

“used by young, egotistical, narcissistic, self indulgent people who have way too much time on their hands and an inflated level of self importance.”

Perhaps it is because “you can choose the best photos, what you write, who you write to – and then you can select the people you want to see it by making it private.”

A lot feel that MySpace is about the user making themselves a star. “Users can become celebrities in their own minds…they are part of something much bigger than themselves. Anyone, anywhere in the world can discover what Joe Bloggs had for lunch last Tuesday…if it’s in his blog…”

It is also perceived by a few that for some, MySpace is a medium to make users feel popular – by having a large number of friends (contacts) on their space

MySpace is considered by a few to have taken off quite quickly – resulting in a pop activity. Some lead adopters have now moved on to other blog sites – which aren’t so “teeny” yet still enables the networking aspect, such as Facebook. The teeny aspect for some means MySpace is becoming a bit lame.

MySpace is the latest fad – so “if you want to be socially accepted, you get a MySpace.”