My "New" Space

MySpace.  A Place For Friends.

I originally joined MySpace in April of 2006.  My best friend IMed me and said, "You have to try this new thing!"  I was like, "Oh no, not a dating site!?!?!"  But I later came to realize what MySpace was.  And now, I realize what MySpace has become.

MySpace started out as a networking tool (shocker!) and a place for people to stay in touch with their families and friends.  The concept was great, but no one thought about what it was REALLY going to turn into.  Somehow though, I knew.

I admit, within a month after joining MySpace, I met a guy who I liked, who actually worked for the same company that I did at the time, and we went out a few times. Nothing ever came out of it, but for me, my first experiences with MySpace resembled those of a dating site.

In November, 2009, I deleted my MySpace account because most of my friends had moved on to Facebook and no one was using MySpace anymore.  However, in the spring of 2010, I was curious to see what changes MySpace had made.  I kept hearing about how it mimicked itself after Facebook, and wanted to see what all the hype was about. So I rejoined, but only for about a month.  Once again, I got nothing out of it, except for messages and friend requests from guys I didn't know.  In these messages, they would tell me how hot I was and how they'd like to meet me.  Like I didn't know what their intentions were.  But they didn't know what kind of girl I was, and whether or not I would take the bait, so they did what they were there to do.  I, on the other hand, deleted my profile.

Now, that's not to say that things like that don't take place on Facebook.  But it was always joked that MySpace is the new "booty call" and Facebook is more family-oriented. I think that's slowly changing as well, but because most people are friends with their family members on Facebook (mainly because I think Facebook is a little more appropriate and user-friendly for the older generations), I don't think it will ever become as bad as MySpace.

Now I hear that MySpace is on the auction block, and looking to lay off 50 percent of their 1,100 employees before this coming spring.  The owner of MySpace (NewsCorp.) confirms that many meetings are scheduled in the upcoming weeks to discuss the fate of the networking site.  But sources indicate that many more lay offs will be necessary to prove to potential investors that the company is on track to be profitable again.

With Facebook hitting one out of the park, MySpace has quickly taken a back seat in the social networking scene.  But here's the thing.  I actually rejoined MySpace, yet again, for the purpose of doing this post, and I have to say that it doesn't look all that bad.  They've made tremendous improvements on the layout and navigation of their site, that one can almost start to wonder if MySpace had done it first, would they still be at the forefront of the social networking scene, rather than Facebook?  The problem is that MySpace got old fast, and when Facebook came on the scene, it was something new and different.  It flowed better and offered more features.  And while MySpace's privacy settings were outstanding since day one, it wasn't enough to keep users entertained.  People started to migrate to Facebook, and now, no matter what MySpace does, it seems it's always a step behind.

I don't plan on keeping my MySpace account this time either.  If I do, it will be totally private and only used for research purposes such as this blog. Unless, of course, MySpace makes a major comeback.  Guess we'll just have to wait and see.