I admit it. I have a MySpace account. Acquired recently, this will be the last of the mess of networking sites I subscribe to, mostly because they have little utility (and also 'cause I think I've reached the maximum age limit or something).
However, it does stand out from Friendster, LiveJournal, Xanga, and everything else, because it has become a successful marketing/advertising tool for movies, tv shows, music artists, and other random celebrities. One of my favorite shows, FX's Nip/Tuck created not only an account for the show but for a main character, The Carver. A masked psychopath that mutilates/rapes plastic surgery patients to share one message, "Beauty is a curse upon the world", The Carver character had boosted the show's ratings for two seasons until the season finale reveal of the true identity behind the mask.
Although many forums and websites were created to allow Nip/Tuck fans to speculate the identity, The Carver's MySpace account offered up additional background and clues through videos and blogs, racking up a whopping 115,000+ friends to date.
The Carver account definitely had me going. For a die-hard fan, the videos were a plus and the blogs explored the character's world, never discussed on the show. Although the reveal was disappointing, and many other MySpace friends expressed similar feelings, the capability of having free advertising available to such a large audience makes the networking site successful for many celebrities as well as unknown, unsigned bands and artists.
Anyway, I like it and i'll admit it, damnit.
Tracy Steel @ Tue, 02/21/2006 - 11:23pm
I will also admit that I too am on MySpace. Besides all the things that MySpace is criticized for (ie, underaged girls posting pictures of themselves in their underwear and the creepy old men who try to flirt with them), it's not all that bad. I personally use it to keep up with my friends back home, to see their blog entries, their pictures, just to keep updated on what's going on with their lives. And MySpace has grown from that in the past couple of years, especially with their music section, where lesser known bands can build a countrywide fan base by posting their song clips, tour dates, pictures, etc. The idea of MySpace is a good one, but it's the people who have turned it into a dating service that have given it a bad reputation.