My Thoughts on Myspace

First there was xanga. Actually, there was probably something before xanga, but xanga was my first encounter with one of these monster websites where people can combine blogging, text messaging, and photo hosting along with a collection of links between themselves and all of their friends who are doing the same thing.

I never had a xanga, but at least one of my sisters, and quite a few other people within a few years of her age had them, and I had some fun occasionally looking through the comments they posted to each other, looking at pictures they uploaded, reading their blog entries. Then something interesting happened. Some of these kids' parents started having xanga sites. And the kids themselves were posting less and less. I realized that most of them had started something called myspaces, and were abandoning xanga for the newer and less populated network.

I have a myspace. I don't really use it. If I want to write something for more than one person to read I put it here, and for personal conversations I have e-mail, Instant messenger, and a cell phone. Who needs myspace? But it lets me look at my siblings' myspaces, and my cousins' myspaces (although sometimes that's just depressing) and if someone sends me a message there, I can read it and will usually reply. Lately it seems like everyone has a myspace, including, most recently, many of the parents of the kids who've had them for a while.
Recently I've noticed a serious downturn in Myspace activity. In fact, among the younger myspacers- the same ones who used to have xangas- that decrease in activity happened some time ago, probably a year or more, but lately it's become widespread. I knew many people were going to facebook-- from those in the know about this sort of thing, "facebook is better" is something I had heard more than once. But now practically nobody writes on their myspace anymore, and this turn of events has gone hand in hand with another one:

I also have a facebook. I actually started in a few months ago, when I was bored, and for the sole purpose of "poking" my uncle, who I had discovered also had a facebook. I didn't add any friends at the time, and after that initial "poke" I never went back until the other day. A friend of mine was invited to join by her cousin, and implored me to remember my password so that she could add me as a friend. In the process of locating her based on my e-mail contacts, I found some of my siblings' pages and, what the heck, added them as well. Since that day only a week or so ago, I have not only gained a number of friends, but I've noticed that many of my friends have just signed up. And THEIR friends have just signed up. It's like everyone I know just discovered facebook this past week. And I'm wondering, is facebook big enough for everyone, or am I part of the beginning of the wave that will push everyone on to the next big networking site?