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The Fall of MySpace

In the past ten to fifteen years there has been an increased obsession with social networking.  The pioneer was MySpace.  When I was in middle school and the beginning of high school, MySpace was the fad, everyone had one and I was peer pressured into getting one, because otherwise I was out of touch with everyone.  That’s the purpose of social networks, to keep people connected.  Nowadays we rely on this concept to stay in touch with people.  Our social networks have grown to a level that might be considered unfathomable to people twenty years ago.  The topic I want to discuss, however, is not how these networks are successful, but why some have failed, namely MySpace.

When I remember how MySpace operated, I think of all of the creepy friend requests I got and how difficult the interface was to use.  I remember the difficulty of changing the privacy settings and how much time it took to make your page aesthetically pleasing.  If you wanted your MySpace to look good or be cool, you had to know how to code, or where to find code to paste into MySpace.  This concept required too much of the users.  All of these aforementioned issues are much less apparent in social networks like Facebook.  Granted Facebook didn’t become what it is over night, but it has slowly phased out MySpace, as MySpace didn’t react to the issues users had with it in a quick or thoughtful manner.  It’s this complacency that caused the downfall of MySpace, and that creepy guy Tom that was friends with everyone.

Sometimes it’s the pioneer who loses out in the end, and in this case that is true.  The idea is great, but Facebook has far taken over MySpace with its commercialized games, easy user interface, Facebook chat, and apps you can add with a click of a mouse as opposed to searching for random clips of code.  Oh, and I forgot to mention, there’s no creepy Tom guy.  At the end of the day, staying afloat as a social networking site is about giving the consumer what they want.  Just like in any business model if the consumer is unhappy, they will “shop” else where, and that is precisely what has happened to MySpace.  Keeping people connected is important, but for these businesses, there is more to keeping your clients than just that.

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