Webupon

The numbers speak for themselves. In the last year, Myspace’s unique visitors have declined by 5.65%, while Facebook’s are up almost 250%, and Twitter’s, more than 1150%. The statistics are impressive, but let’s not pay much attention to them for now. Instead, simply consider your own impression of these three social networks. It can’t be denied that Myspace has garnered a negative image; it’s not something many people even consider anymore.

What the heck happened to Myspace.com?

Well, I thought the answer was simple. Myspace killed itself. Allowing its users to customize their backgrounds and add music, in particular, made the site annoying to use. It might not have been so bad at first, but popularity killed it. When the site gained as much momentum as it did, the influx of internet novices was inevitable. The online newbies, particularly young teens and preteens, abused the most annoying features. Facebook, in contrast, allows no music that plays automatically, and no fundamental changes to its starkly white interface.

Even worse, Myspace had privacy problems. The profile protections were frequently broken, and anyone could slip into school groups or other groups with little or no verification. That made it particuarly attractive to predators.

Facebook and Twitter solved all Myspace’s problems. They’re unobtrusive, simple, and can appeal to everyone from every demographic. Though by no means invulnerable, they are also more secured against predatory behavior. It was only natural that they succeeded Myspace. It’s just that simple.

Or so I thought.

However, new research paints a much more interesting, and much less simple, picture. According to Danah Boyd, a researcher from the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Myspace has become a “digital ghetto”. Myspace users are far more likely than Facebook users to be minorities, and are widely viewed as being poorly educated and impoverished. So what happened?

As Myspace really took off, it grew past being a new way for the internet-savvy to connect. Everyone and his mom soon had a Myspace account. Techies had the accounts first, then high-schoolers and college kids, then younger kids, next their parents, and finally everyone. One of the last groups to get in on the trend, naturally, was the urban minority community, who are often underrepresented on the internet. Now that they are finally entrenched in Myspace, everyone else has moved on.

Boyd calls Myspace’s demise a modern-day version of “white flight”. To her, it seems to resemble the mass migration of middle to upper-class whites away from the cities to the suburbs in reaction to an influx of minorities. She goes so far as to say, “It should scare the hell out of us.”

While Boyd has a point, I think calling it “white flight” makes racism seem like the issue here, and it’s not. No one fled Myspace because blacks or Hispanics or any other group began to use it. People fled Myspace because useless spam and annoying crud created by unintelligent, unthinking masses began to crowd out all that was good. Try cruising Myspace for fifteen minutes, and try counting the number of times you read interesting or useful content there. You’ll never need more than one hand.

Facebook and Twitter now have much more to offer. Not only can your high-school crowd get on Facebook and chat it up, but business executives can use it for professional connection-building. Twitter, in particular, is now used by many companies from every arena, as well as bands and individuals. Like Facebook, Twitter is organized, and limits the amount of damage that a 10-year-old girl with a limited attention span can do.

Morons killed Myspace, but that’s not to say it wasn’t Myspace’s fault. Facebook has its share of crud, too, especially with all the applications asking to add themselves to your profile. The difference is that Facebook knew it was a good idea to enable serious users to separate themselves from the morons, and not suffer through twenty spam bulletins every second. Myspace, shame on you. You should have known that Content is King.

To read the original article about Danah Boyd’s findings, see http://www.inquisitr.com/27998/myspace-now-a-digital-ghetto/