MySpace losing its novelty

[Midnight Mike]

MySpace losing its novelty
FALLS CHURCH, Va., Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The California-based online sensation MySpace, which has grown tremendously among teens in a short time, reportedly is losing its charm.

The Washington Post reported that the fickle teen audience is now flocking to places such as Facebook, where they share messages and photos. The Post talked to students at Falls Church High School in Falls Church, Va., where many students said they had deleted their MySpace profiles.

In past months, there have been security concerns involving MySpace. Some schools reported having teachers that were logging into their students' information, apparently to monitor for drug and alcohol abuse, but students were offended, saying it was an invasion of privacy. Also, there is the ever-looming threat of online predators.

But privacy is not the only factor. Sources told the Post that the teen audience is extremely fickle, and friends often jump from one networking service to another in blocks. For instance, Friendster and Xanga enjoyed enormous but short-lived popularity before MySpace came along.

The trend comes as Google Inc. struck a $900 million deal to advertise on MySpace.

[Matt Molnar]

There's also a ton of spam on MySpace these days and they've done very little to combat it. The worst offenders are the musicians...which were the site's original target users.

[Nick]

I just have my prof set to private and communicate with friends. Fine for me.

[T-Bird76]

I just have my prof set to private and communicate with friends. Fine for me.

I agree I have mine set to private, the amount of crap you get when its public is annoying.

[JennyPie]

I graduated with two kids threatened myspace with posting how to find out who views your page. they wanted like 100,000 dollars or they would post it. the flew to calif. or something where they were arrested. and, thier profiles were deleted. idiots. lol :roll:

[PhilDernerJr]

MySpace has a lot of issues like spam and server problems. I don't think it's really losing it's appeal, though. Just because some kids in the middle of nowhere deleted their profiles? There are millions of profiles on there.

As for facebook, aren't you only able to join if you're in college?

[RDU-JFK]

For Facebook, you need a college-based e-mail to sign up (like [email protected]). There's also a high school version. You can also join if you belong to an individual network but you cannot view others' profiles unless you're their friends or in their network (or other privacy settings). Since I was a Duke grad and I'm from NYC, I can see nearly everyone's full profiles in the Duke and NYC networks.

I hear now that certain companies can create their own networks with company-based e-mail addresses (AIG, etc...)

[Nick]

More and more companies look for their employees on myspace too. Another reason I went private.

[USAF Pilot 07]

I'm pretty sure that Facebook just changed their policy so that you don't have to be in college, or have a college e-mail to join.

Facebook offers a far superior product than Myspace does. Facebook keeps it simple. On Myspace there tends to be a ton of clutter and visual "no-no's" whereas everyone's facebook profile background is the same and its very standardized and easy to understand. Plus, facebook offers other features, such as photo sharing to its members; things that Myspace doesnt.

[JennyPie]

I'm replying to the original post.....with the internet, Myspace, facebook, even diablo, you should be responsible otherwise you should not be on it...and if you are going to put a picture up half-naked then you should expect someone to try to contact you. i don't think it's myspace, i think it is the people....myspace has fixed some things by making an option to set your page to private, which would solve most of the problems, if you choose not to do this, then that's your fault, after all...it's saying is "myspace, a place for friends" i don't accept any friend request from just anyone....the farthest i'd go is to accept someone who i don't know, but i know enough where they're not a wierdo....otherwise it's private to the world :) as far as the teacher thing....they shouldn't log in at school, or give out their information and yes, it is invasion of privacy. but if the teacher is logging into someone else's page to look at it....then it goes right back to, set it to friends only. i think i rambled enough here :P