myspace vs. Facebook: finally over it
9 Jul
It seems that as of late, the pedal is to the medal when it comes to social networking. The average user probably has at least 3 social networking pages – the advanced user I would say 5, at the least. This increase in number of social networking sites has given way to options. But the more I see what is possible in these spaces, the more demanding I have become of the functionality I want/need and the usability I expect. That being said, I think the time has come for me to let go of myspace and move on to bigger and better things.
My synthesis of why I think I am not the only one who is making this transition:
Facebook’s hold has grown stronger than MySpace’s over the past few years due to a number of variables. I think the number one and number two variables here are the convenience of posting photos and the status update features (in conjunction with the convenience and thoroughness of the news feed). The ability to comment on anything in a news feed has only increased the interactions the average user has day to day within Facebook. Afterall, since the beginning, the main fascination has been the ability to snoop on your friends and acquaintances without them knowing. At first you feel wrong for doing it, then overtime everyone admits they do it too. It was at that point that Facebook made a smart move and played directly to that snooping desire we all have, creating the news feed. This allows you to get the entire scoop from all your friends with minimal effort. The ability to comment on the news feed has made it acceptable not only to obsess about what others are up to, but to actually insert yourself into the conversation anytime anything of interest to you occurs within your friends space. Consequently, I believe this has had an adverse effect on the amount of time average myspace/Facebook user spends on myspace.
Over the past year, myspace has been forced to attempt to attempt to mimic the features that we have grown to expect, thereby copying Facebook and in effect, losing its unique identity that it had entered the space with. I think at this point myspace is just too far behind the race to catch up – unless they somehow come up with a mind-blowingly impressive feature that Facebook has not yet come up with. And then implement it before Facebook comes up with something better – quite a feat. Facebook also developed a more useful mobile app before myspace did, which only added to the myspace to Facebook migration.
Don’t get me wrong myspace – your innovation spurred quite a shift in how people use the internet socially, and you deserve your props for that. But your ability to keep up with the times and continue to adapt to respond to the market’s demands seems to have been proven inferior to that of Facebook – and I think the time has come for you to pass the torch. I’ll always remember you though ;)
