Filed under: Internet, News, Blogging, Web services, Social Software
Is Myspace vs. Facebook a class issue?
Your social network preference might say more about you than you realize. This blog essay lays out a strong case that Facebook is beating Myspace on a socio-economic level, if not just yet on a pageview/users level. It makes sense. Facebook started as a college and university only platform, which right off the bat adds a significant gap between the haves and have-nots. Add a pinch of irritation that users with an IQ above 80 feel when confronted with abhorent Myspace layouts and you have a recipe for the great unwashed to rally around Myspace, leaving the rest of us who can string a few words together as Facebook planted refugees from the ills and distaste of Myspace.
After spending the better part of an hour on 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David said 3:21PM on 6-25-2007
I would consider myself a "have not" for the most part (i.e.,barely breaking middle class),however I do have an IQ higher than the majority of the population.Personally,I find MySpace AND Facebook extremely annoying.Perhaps because I'm over 40 and have no desire to chat with or "friend" adolescent morons,and I'm not trolling for underaged sex partners.
Aside from that,both sites are incredibly ugly and difficult to navigate,and full of spam and even more malicious crap.As a musician and avid listener,I do find the relatively new VIRB site does have some promise,and is MUCH more user friendly without all the inherent MySpace/Facebook garbage.
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Anthony said 3:34PM on 6-25-2007
Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges in my opinion.
Both started off with a different target market thats taken each site to the status it is currently.
I have both...facebook for old friends elementary school...and myspace for the social scene.
And honestly no one 40 should be on myspace....that jus screams to be investigated my some enforcement department.
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Yayaja said 4:00PM on 6-25-2007
I think I can sum it up quickly:
The people who use myspace are the same people WhO LiKe tO tYPe lIkE ThIs. TheY ArE MoRoNs.
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lawstud said 4:34PM on 6-25-2007
This is not an original idea, I wrote about this 3.5 years ago in a class about this kind of stuff while at UCLA and posted it online on my now extinct blog.
At the time facebook was not as open as it was now. For instance, you had to have a college email address to sign up and now its just open to everyone.
However, Facebook was started from Harvard students, and MySpace was started from a UC Berkeley grad. So is there a real difference... maybe, the Harvard boys actually wanted some exclusivity and insulation from the rift-raff trolling Myspace, now they are opening up like myspace, it appears facebook is competing more and becoming more and more like MySpace...
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robot rock said 6:58PM on 6-25-2007
Myspace reminds me of AOL in the 90s. Everyone hated on it, but it generated tons of money and had a multitude of users. Not to mention the awful coding.
Of course AOL eventually deflated to whatever it is now...wonder if the same will hold true for Myspace.
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Colin said 12:30AM on 6-26-2007
If nothing else, Myspace drives me nuts because I am automatically subjected to people's musical taste when their page *finally* loads.
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Scott said 10:08AM on 6-26-2007
I have to say I have a real dislike for Myspace. I am 40 and maybe it's just me but that site and the users pages are really terrible. My 14 yo step son has one and it's absolutely dreadful.
I think what gets me is that the teens that use this site are going to be our next generation of working class. If they think their Myspace page looks good I can't imagine what kind of work they will produce when they get jobs... not to mention communication skills?
wat do u tink?
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Zacharias said 12:30PM on 6-26-2007
Put simply, facebook makes you type, myspace lets you add flash widgets that don't add anything. So if you can't type, you're pretty much boned. It's so much easier to copy-paste a list of keen TV shows than to add glitter buttons, you lazy facebookers (- Zacharias http://bsgeek.com)
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Diddle said 3:45PM on 6-26-2007
@Yayaja: LMFAO! It's SO true!
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E-Rock said 9:49PM on 6-26-2007
I think this argument is a waste of everyone's time. Yes, there is a class issue at work here. If you're old enough to recall the time when people posting to
Usenet newsgroups would get flamed for having an AOL address, then you're old enough to remember when people would get flamed on internet forums for having a WebTV address. And that makes you just old enough to realize that there always will be condescending jerks on the internet who will be ready to disparage anyone who doesn't meet their criteria for internet savviness. It is not a matter of populist pride in Myspace so much as it is elitist pride in Facebook. I hold accounts in both because I have friends in both networks. Both platforms have differences that make them equally inviting and compelling for me. Frankly, I hope both networks meet the same fate Friendster did, and I pray that a truly open solution for social networking evolves.
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