Friday Blog Question: Do you still use Myspace at all?

We’ve been doing a lot of talking about social media these days. Between Wednesday’s webinar on the subject, all the friends we’ve been making on all of these new sites, and all of the ink being devoted to it – we’re swimming in social. So whatever happened to Myspace? Do you still use it? They still claim to be the all time heavyweight champion of the world, but it’s also snubbed viciously by the social media elite.

So are you still on there? If so, why? If not, why not? I never used MySpace.  It was over before it started, if you ask me. Joseph Jaramillo

I never used MySpace even when it was “all the rage.”  To me it was too difficult to add any of the music or background features and when I’d type in stuff about myself it never seemed to show up. It really frustrated me because I like to think that I am pretty tech savvy (built a webpage using straight HTML in the 5th grade, had web dev internships, etc.) and I still couldn’t get a font to change color or a simple background image to appear. I also never liked how if you wanted to find someone you needed to know the special name or URL they chose for their page (like an IM screen name or alias of sorts).  Facebook at least makes that part easier by having you use some form a name people can recognize. I did jump on the Facebook bandwagon as soon as my University was added back in 2005, full force I might add, and I have yet to give it up.  I like how Facebook is simpler to use and has tons and tons of privacy features so it’s almost near impossible someone to see me if I don’t want them to (some might argue this point, but I feel pretty safe on Facebook). I must say I’m not a fan of the thousands of widgets and apps that are on the site (I am guilty of using a few), but I’m just hoping that Facebook doesn’t commit social media suicide by becoming as cluttered and difficult to maneuver as MySpace was/is. Allison Thor

I still have my MySpace profile, however, I do not use it regularly. The most beneficial MySpace feature to me is that I can see when my friends logged in last. My brother is in Iraq, and we go weeks without hearing from him.  Being able to quickly see when he has logged in last helps our peace of mind, and see that he is safe. However, I find Facebook much easier to manage and keep in touch with people. And there aren’t any distracting backgrounds to deal with! Ellen Stevens

I personally never wanted a myspace - I thought it was something for high schoolers.  When it was all the rage, my friend signed me up for myspace as a joke - so I figured if you can't beat them - join them.  I classed up my page a bit and then was actually sort of addicted to it.  I found a bunch of old friends from high school and college - reconnected with people.  That lasted for a few months, and then sort of died out.  There was a lot of spammers on myspace, I was always getting weird friend requests.  Though the page is still up - I probably go on it once every few months - more so if I get an email saying I got a friend request or something like that - and I have never updated it.  I have considered taking it down all together - but it is just not on my priority list.  Like my feelings toward twitter - something similar, bigger and better always comes along eventually.  I do not, and do not plan on ever having a facebook by the way. Debby Hrach

No.  I’m pretty much done with the hula hoop and the Betamax as well. Chris Sietsema

Personally, I was never part of the Myspace revolution of two or three years ago, and many friends made me feel stupid for staying out of it. What's funny to me now are the number of people I find now who say the same thing. It is as though the Myspace users just garnered more attention, giving the false impression that every human on the planet actively used Myspace. Which is something important to consider when you read about social media, I think. After all, not all of us who say we never used Myspace are now on Twitter either. Eric Reid

I joined MySpace back in 2004, when it was all ironic haircuts and indie bands and it was still competing with…if you can even remember these days…Friendster. At the time, it blew Friendster out of the water. MySpace was great back then. It made it easy to keep in touch with people and know what’s going on in their life without calling and emailing all the time. It also allowed you to take super-close-up photos of, like, half of your face looking pensive or bored (for reference: Hipster Olympics) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAO4EVMlpwM and share them with your similarly disaffected friends. But…well…it got old, like social networks tend to do. And it was invaded by teenagers and soccer moms and all the other people hipsters loathe. So yeah, I still have a MySpace account. You can’t find me by my real name or my email address or my high school, but it’s there and I check it every now and then. And you know what? It’s still better than the send-someone-a-flower, you-got-pinched, what-kind-of-vampire-are-you  BS that Facebook  insists on throwing around. Sure, the Facebook interface is better. Sure, it’s less skeezy than MySpace. But it annoys the piss out of me. Sara Wachter-Boettcher

I never really got into MySpace. Ever once in awhile I'll click over there if there is a band page I want to check out, but aside from that most of my social interactions take place on Facebook or Twitter. William Smith

I still have my Myspace page but I don't use it as often as I used to. I use Facebook a lot more now but really just because the majority of people I know use Facebook more. I actually like Myspace better as far as how you can customize your page, add music, etc. so I find it a little odd that more people are on Facebook, but I guess the connection with the people outweighs the bells and whistles. Holly Ringerud

I’ve definitely made the move to Facebook...much cleaner and professional and you don’t feel bombarded by “tween” advertising every time you long on... Just keeping a myspace page until all of my friends migrate to facebook... Paul Peterson

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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