Tick Tock

It's that time of night again.  After a full day of work, dinner, and a bit of relaxing, I'm always surprised when I look up and it's almost 11.  All this being productive in the office is really putting a crimp in my blog writing duties here! Not that I would spend company time working on this, but my lunch hour is often punctuated by emails (I haven't quite mastered ignoring the little new mail icon when it appears on my screen), phone calls, and other requests.  It's not really the most conducive atmosphere for writing.  I have the best ideas when I'm propped up in bed, cozy under the blankets, with my laptop to help keep me warm.  Unfortunately, this is also a good recipe for falling asleep so I'll push on and hopefully finish before that happens. =)

If you haven't figured out by now, I'm not continuing the Social Scene Series (click on Part 1 - Intro or Part 2 - Is MySpace Dead to review) tonight.  I'm still sifting through stats and various research in hopes we avoid another bunk post like the first one, which also translates to I'm fighting through writer's block and am delivering another lame filler post.  Since I'm not giving you my insights on social networking tonight, I'll take this time to welcome our 5th official follower Big Red!  Clearly you hit follow by accident but I think the more, the merrier so hopefully you're not disappointed =)

In an effort to get to know my readers better, I've decided to open up a poll.  Every Monday I'll post a new question for you to answer throughout the week.  Personally, I like polls so hopefully some of you will too.  I'm hoping it'll help me get a sense of what you're looking for and possibly generate some interesting topics to write about.  Another thank you to everyone that has provided feedback so far.  No matter the length or the content, comments really do mean a lot.  I know it can be cumbersome to write out an entire comment sometimes (especially for a post like this) so I've installed some reaction buttons at the end of each post.  To encourage more feedback.  While this blog is mainly about me and the things in my life, I'd love to be able to turn it into a conversation or discussion on things that matter to you.  On that note...comment away (on the better posts)! =)

The Social Scene - Is MySpace Dead?

Apologies for yesterday's thoroughly bunk post - I couldn't even look at the link without cringing today!  I thought I'd take another stab at it today which was an excellent idea before the Canucks blew three leads and lost to the Avalanche in overtime.  However, I did promise Shawn that I would take another stab at this topic and I'd hate to disappoint a quarter of my followers =) To compromise, I'm breaking social networking into five parts - MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, & Blogs.  Not only am I keeping this short enough for you to read in one go, but I'm giving myself a few extra days to write...sneaky, but you'll thank me in the end.

The Old MySpace

With formatting similar to the networking site Friendster, MySpace had it's fifteen minutes of fame between 2004 - 2006 before Facebook was open to the general public.  As a member since 2006 (before Facebook exploded), I fondly remember MySpace as full of creepy people wanting to be my friend and bands trying to make it big.  The great thing about MySpace was that it literally was YOUR own space.  Your page was whatever you wanted it to be which I think is the biggest draw for those in school (both high school and in post secondary institutions) and for young people just starting out in the working world.  It can be a battle to be heard, so why not set up a page to express who you really are. 

I'd never been a big user of MSN instant messaging, ICQ, or Friendster, so this was my first foray into social networking.  I'm not a computer savvy person but even I found setting up my page to be extremely easy.  So easy that I would change it at least once every month.  Eventually, I found myself bogged down friend requests that were somehow getting past my privacy settings and the core of who I was got lost beneath the clutter of posted comments and quizes, etc. on my page.  Enter Facebook in 2007, a cleaner, efficient way to keep in touch with all of my friends. 



My current MySpace



I've pretty much abandoned MySpace since joining Facebook but I keep my account to connect with new artists (i.e. Annie Stela, The Kin, Matt Nathanson etc.).  If you're desperate to see my MySpace Page (for whatever reason), click here to see what the general public sees.  To me, MySpace is dead except for musicians and their most loyal fans.  Apparently, I was wrong...

In an article by Jeremiah Owyang, posted on his Web Strategy blog, MySpace is still 76 million users strong and is showing signs of increase (as of 2009).  He's put together a collection of stats in his article, breaking down user populations, daily use rates, growth, and even geographical info.  It's a pretty interesting read and I'm looking forward to see what the stats from 2010 will look like (he hasn't posted them yet). 

Reading Owyang's article made me think twice about MySpace and prompted me to go login and see what the current MySpace is all about.  I still love the individuality and freedom that MySpace gives its users and the new layout is looking pretty cool, but I'm in too deep with Facebook to pull out at this point.  The amount of content I have on my page would be too much to lose (which is the same reason I gave back in 2007 when I refused to delete my MySpace page...) so I guess I'll just have to enjoy the best of both worlds.

In closing, is MySpace dead?  Definitely not.  I think that if it plays it's cards right, MySpace could be poised to make a bit of a come back.  I know it's already started with me =)