MySpace

I joined MySpace YEARS ago, because a friend told me to. It was still small, and I had never heard of it. I registered a profile, messed around for a few minutes and didn't come back for...about 3 years.

By then everyone and their Emo brother was on MySpace. Grandparents, politicians (some who need to respect web designers a little more...I'm looking at YOU John McCain...) and movie stars all use MySpace alongside the 14 year old kids who don't know that 'you' is not spelled 'u'.

I was never really a fan of MySpace. I don't like that users, many of whom have no idea what they are doing, can throw around HTML and CSS like they are frisbees. I have been to pages where there are 7 different songs, videos, embedded mp3's and blinking texts Java applets all going at the same time. I'm somewhat surprised there hasn't been at least one outbreak of seizures because of the mess that some MySpace pages are constantly in. Also, it was hard to navigate and I could never know when someone updated their page.

Lastly, I have always liked Facebook better, especially for keeping up with people. I guess I'm not nearly as interested in self expression as I am with keeping up with friends and family in a simple manner.

I think I had my last straw with MySpace today. I had someone message me. This person shall remain nameless...lets call him..."X". X was wondering why he wasn't in my "top friends".

I started to reply. I stopped. I didn't really even know this guy well. Then, it dawned on me....Wow. Really? People put stock into this? Isn't it terrible to be figuring out order of friends, how they 'rank' to you and who the best of the bunch are? I looked at my 'top friends' and I have no idea how I came up with the order they were in. I certainly didn't sit down and think to myself..."Okay...where numerically does so-and-so fit into my life...I better be right about this, otherwise the friend police will come take me off to MySpace jail".

I guess I'm not monosyllabic enough to think of friends and family in this way. All I did was put people who I wanted to be able to quickly check their page, if needed.

Honestly, this made me like MySpace less then I already did. I'm not leaving the site, because that is more work then it is worth, but whatever enthusiasm I once had for it is now gone. I almost never check it anymore to begin with, so I've really come to peace with this.


Notes:

-I'm thinking about using LiveJournal again for more personal blog material, so that I don't necessarily broadcast somethings to the entire world. I used to use LiveJournal a few years ago, but I'll likely start a new journal. Anyone have thoughts on this? It would be more for me, but some of it will be published.

-On that note, I'm starting a blog completely devoted to baseball and the Twins separate from this one. I'll share the address for that once I'm all set to go.

-I finished writing my first article for "Cereal:Geek", the magazine I'm writing for. I'll make sure to show it to anyone interested.

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