Would Students Use the New MySpace?

What Was Myspace?

Myspace, a name many recognize and a name that many are new to, a thing of the past and a concept of the present. But what is Myspace exactly? Myspace, once formatted as MySpace, is an American social networking service. Myspace was launched on August 1^st, 2003, as the first social network to stretch out globally and have mass influence as one of the pioneers to technology, pop, culture, and music. Myspace’s golden era was from 2005 to 2009, where it peaked in members at the time. Myspace was a space where users could create customized profiles, share photos, and discover independent artists. Users would design their custom web pages through coding, typically using HTML and CSS just to show off their favorite colors, backgrounds, and personal interests.

Members in Myspace featured their closest friends in a special public ranking on their profile known as the “Top 8”, mainly used for self-expression and to highlight their closest friends. Another feature for Myspace is the Bulletin Board System (otherwise known as Bulletins), which were the precursors to the modern version of Facebook’s “status update” or tweet, they were used for updates or as a type of changelog. A tertiary feature we see in Myspace that others can connect to modern-day social media is the Comments Section, which was located at the very bottom of every profile page. Users would post comments in the Comments Section, which once posted, would optionally follow with glittering text banners, custom images, and other quirky features.

Myspace then was a whole new universe, a pioneer during its prime. But it all collapsed once News Corp. purchased the website, which enforced a corporate focus on the platform. As well as other factors like spam & malware, invasive advertising, and chaotic customization that became a clutter over the years. Due to these factors, Myspace lost out to Facebook’s clean, fast, and innovative platform.

In conclusion, Myspace was one of the first pioneering platforms to shape the form of the upcoming modern social media, with its peak being at 2005 through 2009, expanding in technology, pop, culture, and music. Myspace has many resemblances to modern social media. Soon afterwards, Myspace failed due to its ownership being purchased by News Corp. which soon followed a domino effect of problems that made the once-loved website undesirable.

How Myspace Differs from Social Media

Like stated prior in “What Was Myspace?”, Myspace was an early pioneer of social networking, so it carries a lot of different aspects that we don’t see, or see rarely in modern social media. It differs through aspects like high level of user customization, lack of algorithmic feeds, and focus on personal web spaces rather than streamlined content sharing.

To put an emphasis, Myspace users had full HTML and CSS (coding languages) access to personalize their pages with custom backgrounds, glittering texts, and auto-playing profile songs. Unlike modern platforms, Myspace had a non-algorithmic feed that displayed content from direct connections rather than curated news, ads, or celebrity posts, this made Myspace a much more tasteful and less of a plain, repetitive algorithm like we see in social media today. Modern social media platforms use standardized, repeating templates where everyone’s profile looks practically the same if users don’t pay to have access beyond a paywall, like Discord. These restricts hold back the users of said platform to express themselves through colors, custom banners, and animated profile pictures.

Another aspect that made Myspace different from modern social media was that navigation relied on visiting individual personal homepages rather than scrolling through an endless feed. In some factors, this made Myspace both difficult and fun at the same time. While modern social media is controlled by algorithms that changes what you see based on your interactions towards the platform. Let’s say you are scrolling through Instagram, and like five posts regarding supercars, the algorithm detects that you enjoy seeing videos of supercars so it feeds you more videos of supercars. In shorter words, social media’s algorithm changes to your liking.

In conclusion, Myspace is different from modern social media due to its pioneering state where users had the creativity and freedom to customize their profiles however they desired instead of following a uniform-styled way of customization behind a paywall like social media platforms like Discord.

Would Students Use the New Myspace?

Whether students would use Myspace or not differs, so let’s see both perspectives of this question.

At one side, some students say they wouldn’t use the new Myspace due to the platform being owned by an AI corporation and that the company might add AI aspects into the new, modernized Myspace. AI, for as long as it has been more developed, has been both hated and loved by many people across the globe as well as for students alike. In this case, some students hate the fact AI could potentially be used in the new Myspace platform. “I would never use the new Myspace because they are owned by an AI company and might implement AI into this new version of Myspace. If you’re going to recreate a crucial part of our childhoods, make it man made.”, expressively states Orion Juarez, a Junior at John A. Ferguson Senior High School. Some students wouldn’t use it now due to its current state of Myspace just being music discovery and an entertainment portal, “I probably wouldn’t use the new Myspace right now because I really don’t feel like it is good to at the moment.”, says Juan Mendez, a Junior here at John A. Ferguson High School.

While on the other side, some students would use Myspace for nostalgic purposes. Nostalgia plays a big role in the minds and hearts of many students when it comes to revisiting old platforms and other aspects of their childhood, bringing back good memories that they smile at when replaying it in their mind. “I would use the new Myspace for the nostalgia and somewhat jealousy I had as a little kid. Myspace allows me to express my personality. Show my music taste, fashion, and best of all my friends. Add me on Myspace.”, states Ysabella Flores, a Sophomore here at John A. Ferguson Senior High School.

Some other students would use Myspace as a means to discover the old, to experience the old. Sometimes curiosity has led humanity to gain a significant amount of knowledge, maybe even discover new concepts. “I would use Myspace because it puts me in the body of someone who used Myspace when it first came out.”, Says Nicole Medina, a Sophomore here at John A. Ferguson Senior High School.

Others would use it as means to discover music and the new format of the program Myspace has to offer, “I would use Myspace because I can experiment with and discover music and the programs it has.”, says Krista, a Sophomore here at John A. Ferguson Senior High School.

Some other students would use Myspace to meet new people with equal music taste. Students like making new friends through means of connections like music taste, game taste, and other things they can relate on. Sometimes the best connections are made through relating on things liked in common, “Right now, I would use Myspace because its a good opportunity to meet people with my same music taste.”, exclaims Jaylalynn Flowers, a Sophomore here at John A. Ferguson Senior High School.

In conclusion we see that most students would use Myspace, mostly in means of nostalgia, discovery, and making new connections. While the least of students wouldn’t use Myspace because of its current state, and the owners behind the platform.