MyTwitterFaceSpaceBook Thing
Look at me, I'm wonderful. MySpace celebrates the self.
No need to worry, the Riemblogger has not forgotten that he is in the middle of a series of blogs on the Education Game. The simple fact is that things are in such a state of flux in the field of education, especially as regards funding, that we have decided to table that blog series temporarily. In the meantime, enjoy our musings on social networking sites.
The first in a series of blogs on the emerging subject of micro-blogging and social network sites.
Part I
My Space (and welcome to it): Look at Me (I’m wonderful)
Social networking sites (SNSs), as the new phenomenon of knitting the Internet through enabling micro- communication among groups of friend is known, has hit its stride. That stride is graceless, choppy, and wobbly, characterized by its truncated awkwardness. The insistent present tense, third person formula of Facebook status updates (or statuses) and the staccato comment mode imposed by attenuated attention spans and limited space have essentially created a new idiom that takes us a step further along the road to linguistic ruin, the on-ramp to which was paved by the good intentions of texters everywhere. Twitter takes the reductionist direction of this stretch of road even deeper into the woods, cutting down the possibilities of expression by regulating the number of characters allowed per communiqué. Described as “telegraphic” in quality, tweet-speak certainly falls short of aspiring to the condition of the haiku.
In this brave new world of making Friends and following strangers’ communications, MySpace, the first star of the latest generation of SNSs, has been left out in the cold. The metaphorical significance of MySpace is that it reveals the minimal-effort ethos of Facebook and Twitter by providing a message-shaping template upon which the communication act takes place. In this case the message is simply: “Look at me!” The erosion of MySPace has been gradual.In some ways, MySpace was a victim of its own success. Cases of cyber-bullying and sexual exploitation of teens were one problem. Another issue was the emergence of Facebook as a significant competitor and the fickle nature of teenagers and young adults who comprise a significant portion of the user population of MySpace. Let’s face(book) it: MySpace’s day has come and gone. (Here’s an article on the decline of MySpace: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19717700/ Here’s the lead:
updated 2:58 p.m. PT, Wed., July 11, 2007
NEW YORK – The online hangout MySpace appears to be less popular among teens as rival Facebook draws more of the high school crowd, according to new measurements from comScore Media Metrix.
And then there’s http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/29/myspacefacebook-bebo-twitter
MySpace shrinks as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo grab its users
Staff quit social networking’s former darling, now half the size of Facebook
David Smith, technology correspondent
The Observer, Sunday 29 March 2009
“The “Place for Friends” is starting to feel lonely. MySpace, the Rupert Murdoch-owned website once synonymous with social networking, is losing popularity and key staff in its biggest troubles since launching five years ago.”
Many Facebookers maintain their MySpaces as a kind of left-over incarnation of their web-selves. In some sense, MySpace is a digital graveyard. (Like Xanga and other previous generation SNSs.)
Abstractly, the very design of the MySpace page reveals a significantly different focus regarding community in the Facebook and MySpace worlds. Whereas Facebook features ongoing commentary front and center in the newsfeed central column of the user’s homepage, focusing attention on the interactive dimension of the Facebook experience, MySpace is laid out to celebrate the identity of the homepage user. The nature of written communication on MySpace tends to be in the longer format live-journaling as opposed to the more compact messages in the central boxes of Facebook.
So, to return to our opening thoughts, longer, more complex language gives way to shorter, more simple messages. Again, form follows function, with MySpace communication tools relegated to a box and the bulk of the page serving as an advertisement for the person who created the page – an elaborate profile. As it turns out “Look at me!” Is losing out to “Let’s talk!” Of course the nature of what we shall talk about is – pun intended – open to discussion. Which will bring us to our next post about the Facebook phenomenon.
