Myspace was a craze that disappeared as fast as it appeared, its rise to fame was unprecedented but now the site remains comparatively unused. Like fashion, internet sites can become fashionable and in the next season become entirely 'uncool'. This technology was heralded as a means of creating better friendships but this is highly challenged in the academic world and some seem to think that this creates divides between people (Thelwall, 2009). In 2007, 55% of all American youths that were aged between 12 and 17 had profiles on soicial networking sites like MySpace (The MySpace culture, 2007). After only a short time now Myspace is "lagging behind Facebook and Bebo" (Ramsay, 2009). In 2006 Myspace was the most viewed site on the internet, and even got higher visits than sites like Google and Yahoo (Ramsay, 2009). But despite its best efforts to maintain its popularity Myspace has fallen down into the hallows of the past.
Although MySpace was not the first social networking site it was undoubtebly the one that put social networking on the map. After this came the epic rise of Facebook which has now dominated the market and boast tremendous annual profits. MySpace changed the online world and influenced the way that people engage each other on the internet, especially young people. Although its influence on the online world is undisputed the reality is now that the MySpace is commonly perceived as the 'neanderthal of social networks' (Ramsay, 2009).
One of the main reasons why MySpace has 'fallen from grace' is because it "assumed it had won the race, focused on ad sales and forgot about the audience' (Ramsay, 2009). For anyone that is up to date with Social Networking they know that MySpace has seen its last day, the only question is 'how long can Facebook last'. Those who think that Facebook will be timeless will be surprised, as surprised as the team working for MySpace were when the death knell sounded.
References
Thelwall, M. (2009). Homophily in MySpace. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 60: 219–231. doi: 10.1002/asi.20978
The MySpace culture. (2007). Voices from the Middle, 15(2), 59-60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/213930584?accountid=14543
Ramsay, F. (2009). MySpace. Marketing, , 17-17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/214939128?accountid=14543
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