MySpace Logo |
In April 2008, MySpace
was overtaken by Facebook in the number of unique worldwide visitors, and was
surpassed in the number of unique U.S. visitors in May 2009. MySpace generated
$800 million in revenue during the 2008 fiscal year. Since then, the number of
MySpace users has declined steadily in spite of several redesigns.
Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson |
The music discovery site had 50 million users, and was
relaunched by Justin Timberlake in the year 2013. Meanwhile, Bebo (where you
can post blogs, photograph, music and videos), a 10-million strong website once
loved by UK teens, has recently announced its own relaunch.
After years in the shadow Facebook, which now has a whopping
1.2 billion user base, is retro social networking on its way back into fashion?
We open the antique treasure chest of the Internet, and take a look back at the sparkle-covered highs and lows of the MySpace era.
We open the antique treasure chest of the Internet, and take a look back at the sparkle-covered highs and lows of the MySpace era.
- Use all the sparkles!
Like it or not, it was seemingly impossible to spend time
stalking MySpace, circa 2005, without a heav dose of blinding screen glare from
all those sparkly stars and love hearts. The more blinding unicorns and
rainbows, the better, it seemed. And who was going to prove s wrong?
- Chain mail had us genuinely worried
I <3 BEER |
- Customize, customize, customize
Sites like MySpace and Bebo were gloriously customizable, be
it glittery pink fairies or boy bands with more hair gel than a Hollister
advert. Particularly memorable was my ‘I <3 BEER’ theme, which brought
instant street cred –despite the fact that I’d never drunk in my life.
- The birth of over sharing: all those questionnaires
Back in the 00s, we were happy, for some reason, to share
everything and anything on the Internet. Whether it was allowing people you’d
never met to find out your deepest fears and dreams with ’10 truths about me’,
or finding new and inventive ways to waste time with silly band names, the
Internet and procrastination went hand in hand before any of us could even
spell the word.
- MySpace’s ‘current mood’
Current mood |
- The internet had its own language
For anyone who grew up with the web, words that are now
ridiculed then seemed the height of kl. Lol’ing at a gr8 PJ with our bffes was,
like, super jks bbz. So was iNserTing RandOM caps. ROFLMAO. The English
Language was played, cracked and broken but we loved it.
- The internet could be stressful
Particularly when it came to deciding on your ‘top 8’
MySpace followers, or which of your 4,000 friends would be your ‘other half’ on
Bebo.
- The all-important email username
Myspace Page |
- Share the luv
On Bebo the hardest daily decision was who to ‘Share the
Luv’ with. Because nothing spells insecurity like the lack of Internet luv.
- That 400-photo sleepover album
Because nothing says ‘here are two best friends having a
super awesome time’ like 400 near-identical shots that commit every crime against
photography ever. Particular classics included: the beard stroke, the peace
sign, the bathroom mirror selfie (with or without flash), and the overhead
shot. Hours spent editing the brightness, writing captions, and uploading to
MySpace was time well spent.
At some point we were addicted to Myspace, then the most
popular social networking site. But is now been overshadowed by Facbook and
Twitter, just like Orkut and Bebo. This shows that no social network lasta
forever. In this article we discussed the things we love when we were a fan of
Myspace… which no social network can offer.
If you have any suggestions for this list or the blog ,
please feel free to drop comments.
MySpace: 10 things we loved about the MySpace Era
MySpace Logo |
In April 2008, MySpace
was overtaken by Facebook in the number of unique worldwide visitors, and was
surpassed in the number of unique U.S. visitors in May 2009. MySpace generated
$800 million in revenue during the 2008 fiscal year. Since then, the number of
MySpace users has declined steadily in spite of several redesigns.
Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson |
The music discovery site had 50 million users, and was
relaunched by Justin Timberlake in the year 2013. Meanwhile, Bebo (where you
can post blogs, photograph, music and videos), a 10-million strong website once
loved by UK teens, has recently announced its own relaunch.
After years in the shadow Facebook, which now has a whopping
1.2 billion user base, is retro social networking on its way back into fashion?
We open the antique treasure chest of the Internet, and take a look back at the sparkle-covered highs and lows of the MySpace era.
We open the antique treasure chest of the Internet, and take a look back at the sparkle-covered highs and lows of the MySpace era.
- Use all the sparkles!
Like it or not, it was seemingly impossible to spend time
stalking MySpace, circa 2005, without a heav dose of blinding screen glare from
all those sparkly stars and love hearts. The more blinding unicorns and
rainbows, the better, it seemed. And who was going to prove s wrong?
- Chain mail had us genuinely worried
I <3 BEER |
- Customize, customize, customize
Sites like MySpace and Bebo were gloriously customizable, be
it glittery pink fairies or boy bands with more hair gel than a Hollister
advert. Particularly memorable was my ‘I <3 BEER’ theme, which brought
instant street cred –despite the fact that I’d never drunk in my life.
- The birth of over sharing: all those questionnaires
Back in the 00s, we were happy, for some reason, to share
everything and anything on the Internet. Whether it was allowing people you’d
never met to find out your deepest fears and dreams with ’10 truths about me’,
or finding new and inventive ways to waste time with silly band names, the
Internet and procrastination went hand in hand before any of us could even
spell the word.
- MySpace’s ‘current mood’
Current mood |
- The internet had its own language
For anyone who grew up with the web, words that are now
ridiculed then seemed the height of kl. Lol’ing at a gr8 PJ with our bffes was,
like, super jks bbz. So was iNserTing RandOM caps. ROFLMAO. The English
Language was played, cracked and broken but we loved it.
- The internet could be stressful
Particularly when it came to deciding on your ‘top 8’
MySpace followers, or which of your 4,000 friends would be your ‘other half’ on
Bebo.
- The all-important email username
Myspace Page |
- Share the luv
On Bebo the hardest daily decision was who to ‘Share the
Luv’ with. Because nothing spells insecurity like the lack of Internet luv.
- That 400-photo sleepover album
Because nothing says ‘here are two best friends having a
super awesome time’ like 400 near-identical shots that commit every crime against
photography ever. Particular classics included: the beard stroke, the peace
sign, the bathroom mirror selfie (with or without flash), and the overhead
shot. Hours spent editing the brightness, writing captions, and uploading to
MySpace was time well spent.
At some point we were addicted to Myspace, then the most
popular social networking site. But is now been overshadowed by Facbook and
Twitter, just like Orkut and Bebo. This shows that no social network lasta
forever. In this article we discussed the things we love when we were a fan of
Myspace… which no social network can offer.
If you have any suggestions for this list or the blog ,
please feel free to drop comments.