Just minutes ago, I found myself with two minutes of spare time and decided to log in to my MySpace account. When I did, I realized I hadn’t been there since the beginning of November.
Yes, I’m old. I’m also happily married — have been for some time — and not looking for a good time, but a few years ago I opened a MySpace account to stalk my teenage daughter. She’s 19 now and settled down, but she was a bit precocious as a teenager – it didn’t hurt to have parental eyes in the background. I didn’t do anything with my page but hover on it for a year until I realized I could hook up with certain music personalities. Then it became great sport to see who would befriend me.
I also got friend requests from my kids’ friends. A few friends my age joined too, and it was fun and games for a while. Like hanging out with your peeps at the mall.
Then a new glittery galleria opened up down the information superhighway. The dreaded competition, Facebook, came to town, and I signed up as soon as they took away the requirement that one need to be enrolled in college.
Facebook is fun, especially when I was invited to the resident games. I love words, and regularly play Scramble and Word Twist for relaxation. It’s also easy to post photos and links to my articles. There’s the ability to converse with your friends, what with replies to posts and instant messaging within the program. It's also the social network of choice for those attempting to build platforms and to connect with others doing the same thing.
The downside is that a person with a thousand things to do at any given time can only be sociable one place at a time. Well, an old person like me can only handle one.
Article comments
1 - Maddy Pumilia
Nice article.
I never had a Myspace and I never will have a Facebook. I do have a Twitter though and your description of it was perfect:
"like getting a Starbucks double venti cappucino on the fly."
Maddy
2 - Joanne Huspek
Maddy, you have to be the only teenager without Facebook. I think you should get an award of some kind.
3 - Mike
Wow...this is a great article. I teach a marketing class and I was struggling to come up with an analogy for the myspace fall. You hit on it perfectly!
Not to mention that I lived in Birmingham years ago, and the mention of Somerset and the Livonia Mall brought back memories...