Mar 23rd, 2006
MySpace
MySpace is nuts. I don’t think there is a day that goes by where MySpace doesn’t come into conversation. I don’t have a MySpace account and neither do most of my friends, but the conversations that come up are always based around marketing, target audience, what kids are into, etc. I wish I had more time to talk about this, but I’m at work… You know how that is. It’s crazy how MySpace is such a integral part of so many kids lives these days and there is soooo much info on the youth of the world for anyone to access. I wonder how many teachers read their student’s MySpace accounts? So I came across this article about MySpace on Paul Mittleman’s blog on Honeyee. I definitely suggest taking the few minutes to read the article. You can check it here. I’d be interested to see what everyone has to say about this, so leave comments!
Yo, read the article and was definately intrigued. I’m from England and over here the myspace phenomena is in full effect, however I personally don’t worry about the motives of myspace as much as I do the effects on youth culture. This might sound like bullshit but I feel myspace stifles the development of social skills, for example my friend can leave comments on girls pages, but is cripplingly shy when it comes to actually meeting woth them and talking. Myspace is fine, but people need to just chill out and stop using it so much…
that article touches on an important point: just why was such a large sum of money paid for a simple ad site unless there were ulterior motives or hidden agendas?
something within the mechanism must be extremely valuable…you could buy many superbowl advertisement slots for $800million-ish…what gives rupert?
i always wondered if there was some other motive for buying myspace other then ad space and what not. and i can say that after the big buy i have recieved a number of obscure friend requests. it was also interesting the learn that the company that founded myspace is a large span, spyware, etc provider… i wonder how many times my email address has been given away to other companies so they too can fill my email with junk. it was only a matter of time before information like this got out, just like the kids who live in philly we’re charged with vandalism of a building because they had pictures on their myspace, big brother is just one step closer. its like bush didn’t even have to push for the patriot act, he could’ve just used myspace right?
Defgrip you rock-That article was very interesting
cool article but way to overly paranoid every where you look some one wants a piece of “action”…
myspace can suck but it also allows youth to express themselves on a webpage with out being html junkies.
plus its great for selling old parts!
Yo Harrison… i skimmed over the article, but didn’t really take the time to read the whole thing. Mainly because it’s about MySpace, and it doesn’t really matter. I’m just really sick of hearing the word, myself.
I’m surprised more people haven’t posted more negative stuff on how MySpace is affecting the social landscape. I mean, message boards are bad enough, because people are always misinterpreting what people actually mean, and so the general level of shit-talking goes through the roof. It’s a contest that you can’t ever win because nobody ever gets the last word — it just keeps going on forever ’til people get bored with it. Personally, I’m over texting and emailing and I call people now. I don’t have time to type (and I’m a fast typer).
I know there’s been a couple suicides in the States where the news reporters have gone and dug up info (data-mining) about the people from their MySpace accounts… so now everybody in North America knows the deepest personal accounts of some confused or messed up kid… sad really. I’m sure there’s an upside to it, but other than hooking up with chicks and getting laid, the rest of it’s super lame.
One of the things I hate seeing the most is when company’s post “well, we gave in and have set up a MySpace account, so come and visit us and join our friends list”. It’s the easy way out. It’s the best way to do something without even trying. Sure it’s free, but do we all really need to jump on board?
I’ll stop ranting, ’cause the Ten Pack catalog isn’t going to finish itself. MySpace is lame, and it’ll be dead immediately if not sooner. Later H.
WHYSPACE?
::shifty eyes::
“they’re onto us man….”
mydisgrace? it is kind of nice though to be able to keep in touch with some friends who are really hard to get ahold of. i only add people i know though. theres way too many kooks floating around on that shit to be dealing with random people.
http://www.myspace.com/hannaballer2091
Ever since I first heard of MySpace I thought it was just another big waste of time. The article is right on in so many ways though. People put crap about themselves on there for anyone and everyone to see. Even major bands and companies have MySpace accounts. They don’t even advertise their official websites anymore, they only tell you about their MySpace websites because every kid who saw the ad is on the internet 5 minutes later looking at it. More people need to read the article.
It’s been mentioned in the comments already, “data-mining”, remember that word. What started out as a simple social-networking site has been bought and sold for a lot of money, and that’s what it is all about from here on out. Rupert is going to make a ton money off this shit selling current trends, regional hype, upcoming fashion, etc. to the highest bidder. Don’t believe it? Check out an awesome documentary called Merchants of cool aired by PBS. Unreal…
- Mutiny Bikes
who cares how corporations market, if they do a good enough job and get people buy into something good for them they deserve it, or if people are so stupid they let myspace become their reality then they deserve that to.people are responsible for their own actions they have the power of choice, unfortunately most people make bad decisions.
myspace is the greatest youth marketing tool…not to mention it is free!
im scurred!!
Its free and if you have a desk job it helps pass the time. Paul Mittleman’s needs to get over himself.
Completely off the topic…
I’m often curious as to if Myspace will ever become a service you’ll have to pay for, now that so many people all over the world depend on it for communication, networking, etc.
Say for instance, Myspace suddenly charged a $10 per year membership fee. How many of us losers would throw down the money to stay connected? I know I would….
“it’s about MySpace, and it doesn’t really matter”.
didn’t realize you were living in outter space and these things don’t apply.
“who cares how corporations market, if they do a good enough job and get people buy into something good for them they deserve it”
I care how they market, doesn’t everyone? guess not.
“and it’ll be dead immediately if not sooner”
Why because thats what you want?
i’ve always been skeptical of the whole myspace. i dont have a personal account but i log on as team pimpske. none of the information i give is relavant to who i am, but still, its a lot of information on a lot of people. i found an article about 2 years ago on the history of tom. and just reading that article raised some flag dealing with his past businesses of spyware and such. “ok jim, this team pimpske, they live in show your dick west virginia, they’re bi, make $125000 a year. what ads do they click on and who are their friends?” have fun deciphering that shit suits. myspace really sucks but for bmx it can be the greatest thing for traveling, finding new spots, places to stay and meeting other riders. but whats gonna happen in the end? how will it die?
kids in my local high school got searched because they had pictures of pot on their myspace. kids got arrested in boston because of pictures of their graffiti work. Myspace isn’t a place where you can go to get away from it all like he said in his essay, you still have to censor and think before you do because the police will be at your door, because of pictures you posted.
I agree entirely with Mittlemans sentiments. Why is it that when governments try to gather this much information there’s uproar but Murdoch just gets waved on through?
On a lighter note check the Myspace gallery of Douche at:
http://forums.network26.com/
Brian,
They absolutely will charge for it. They’re just chilling on it right now, getting everybody beyond addicted to it. $4/month wouldn’t be unrealstic for them to ask. With 10 million members, that’s $480M a year. They’ll probably end up adding additional storage options, for music & photos etc. like .Mac that you’ll pay more for. Remember how .Mac was free for the first 2 years, and as soon as you realized you couldn’t live without it, they put a price tag on it… and everybody paid.
It wouldn’t suprise me that some of Blogging sites start doing the same, and not far behind that will be Google charging for searches… There’s a few models of this stuff kicking around, and it’s the future.
– chris
Im gonna hate life if they charge money to use google.
With all that said the lotek myspace will be up next week.
Rich
I think that article would have held more weight had it been punctuated properly and written slightly better. Thanks for bringing it to our attention though, I know I really enjoyed reading it and it has certainly made me think about a lot of things.
As far as direct marketing goes, its definitely a good point, but I think that those of us who aren’t sucked in by it now (through other means) won’t be worried by it. However, those who are affected by it, will get a lot worse. If you have embeded in you even a fundamental understanding of society’s workings, then you should be wise to these things, yet such a posession seems so rare among our youth.
I guess its another case of the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer.
it’s a networking tool, but a malicious one at that, it’s immersing youth today at a rate too fast to comprehend. which is terrible because it’s visibly ruining social patterns everyday, look at all the anti-social kids now, it’s an epidemic. It’s already the largest online data mining/marketing tool in the world, and it’s consumed too much, too fast and it inevitably has to burst at the seams. which i’m hoping happens. i use it, and have seen the good and bad, and it’s time for the kids to reclaim their lives off it.
And, the rich will always most certainly get richer.
Wonderful and informative web site.I used information from that site its great.
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Myspace is the biggest trend ever in, five years people are going to look back and think: What the hell were we doing! And I can,t wait till that day when the losers that stay on there all day have to go outside and do something besides type on thier computer. Trends are the worse things ever and I try to stay away from them that is why I’m proud to say that I don’t have a Myspace.
Myspace Graphics and Backgrounds, Myspace Stuff…
Sorry, it just sounds like a crazy idea for me :)…