Myspace — Creativity and Expression Brought to the Digital Age
Myspace was the first form of social media I used as a kid to connect with my friends after school (of course with parental supervision). Founded in 2003 by Tom Anderson, Chris DeWolfe, and Jon Hart, by 2006, it had reached 100 million users and by the end of 2008, it was valued at 12 billion dollars.
Though Myspace wasn’t the first social media site on the internet, it was the first to showcase creators and their creations. Earlier platforms such as Friendster and SixDegrees were tailored to specific themes such as gaming and connecting with people from school and work, while Myspace brought people with all different interests to its site. It was a platform that allowed you to write and share blog posts to a bulletin board feature, leave cheesy, glittery GIF-like images on your friend’s profiles, and even rank your Top 8 best friends. The most famous feature on Myspace was the ability of users to completely design their entire profile by accessing the HTML code. Users were able to express themselves through different visuals, texts, and even down to the customization of the page cursor. One of the most popular customizations was having the ability to add a song playlist to your profile. This was a game-changer in providing another element of expression to the online world by being able to connect to what one was feeling beyond visuals and text.
To this day, I find myself nostalgic for the early version of Myspace that allowed me to create a digital world that reflected my personality to the T. I would spend hours designing my page and distinctly remember setting Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” as my profile song with a pink and black skull and heart’s background. Seeing the different manifestations of people’s personalities through Myspace was what I appreciated the most from this platform. It was personable in what felt like you were entering someone’s small corner of the vast internet. Since then, the only site that has come close to this experience is the social media platform, Tumblr. In comparison to accessibility, it seems we moved from Myspace to white space as platforms today have a more minimalistic and clean approach to their layouts.
In 2008, that very freedom to personalize on Myspace would be the root of its demise. Businesses began to realize they were unable to utilize the platform due to its structural weakness from all the added customizations. Users began to question the safety of the site from the spam advertisements and malware issues they were experiencing. Additionally, Myspace was unable to recruit nor appeal to the older generations. This led to users deserting their accounts for the newer and seemingly safer platform, Facebook. Though Facebook was sterile in appearance compared to Myspace, it based its platform on that very structure that Myspace lacked, leading to its success. Today, many platforms have adopted the core pillars of Myspace with having a place where users can share lengthy blog-like posts on a community newsfeed, connect with others based on shared interests, and have some sort of personalization through a banner picture and bio.
Myspace was acquired by News Corporation for 580 million in 2009 and then later went through various ownership resulting in Meredith Corporation in January of 2018. Today, the platform currently has 7 million users and is for artists to share their music with the world without having to worry about ownership rights, pricing, and release dates for their music, similar to that of SoundCloud. It’s safe to say Myspace was the first platform to bring millions of diverse creators together while also instilling the fundamentals of social media that we know and love today.
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