MySpace Makeover

Social networking site MySpace has been purchased by Justin Timberlake. What caused it's incredible downfall in the first place?

The first social networking site that friends and family began to share the details and photos of their personal lives on was Friendster.  Before Facebook and the "Like" button existed, Friendster ruled the social network experience. It's simple design and functionality was appealing. Later on, users would be able to customize background themes and add multimedia such as music and video through instructions available on the internet.  Due to Friendster's popularity, it's servers kept going down and the site was offline often. 

Beyonce MySpace profile page

By word of mouth, MySpace was the alternative to jump to when Friendster was unavailable. In fact, the transition to MySpace based on my friends' lack of participation on Friendster updates was obvious and in haste. Pretty soon, everyone was on the MySpace bandwagon for social networking and the site gained mainstream appeal. Sure there were age restrictions but anyone could circumvent those limitations. Friendster began it's descent into life support.

I can't pinpoint the exact appeal of MySpace at the time but the name itself represented independence and perhaps a change from the mundane look and feel of Friendster with it's drab blue and white colors, at the time. The site itself seemed to scream "this is MY SPACE and I can do whatever I want!". You could throw in as much as multimedia on your profile page and comment boxes. The creativity was endless!

Which is probably what caused the downfall of MySpace.  Facebook began with limited membership allowing only college students at the time. Once it eased those restrictions, it offered something different from MySpace, simplicity and organized content. Gone were the hideous and outrageous backgrounds and the loud and blaring music and videos. No blinking teddy bears or questionable images in the comment boxes either! No creative and sensory overload either. Facebook was literally the college mature equivalent to the brash and immature preschool look of MySpace.  The same user creativeness-frenzy eventually did MySpace in. 

Of course, MySpace reinvented itself into a music site along with the same social networking feature.  The site allows users to view artist music videos and information. With Justin Timberlake's purchase of the site recently, who knows what it could transform into but it might retain the same functionalities. Hopefully it will learn from past mistakes.