Murdoch biographer: MySpace is for '(expletive) cretins'

Michael Wolff, whose new, lascivious Rupert Murdoch bio The Man Who Owns The News has taken the New York media industry by storm, stirred up some social-networking class warfare in an interview Monday with BusinessWeek's Jon Fine.

"If you're on MySpace now, you're a (expletive) cretin. And you're not only a (expletive) cretin, but you're poor," said Wolff, whose previous book Burn Rate chronicled dot-com excess in the late '90s and who openly attests to hating the word "blog."

"Nobody who has beyond an eighth grade level of education is on MySpace. It is for backwards people," added Wolff, who is also the founder of Newser.

Fine pointed out, "If you are in a band, you are on MySpace. You have to be on MySpace. That's a powerful driver." He's right. "And second of all--if I am to accept your reasoning, even though I don't--as the success of The Sun (a News Corp.-owned British tabloid) will tell you, there are lot of cretins out there and you can make a lot of money off cretins."

Let's get past the language: MySpace did indeed start as a hub for independent music fans. Facebook began as an exclusive directory for Harvard students and expanded to the other Ivies before finally opening to the public. MySpace encourages glitter text; Facebook mandates that members must use their real names. So Wolff is alluding to a legitimate point, but he makes it in the bluntest of terms.

And as Fine notes, there's the money issue. MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe recently expressed concern about the site's revenue growth slowing down amid the recession, but MySpace is still the flagship property of the top destination for display ads on the Web--Fox Interactive Media. Facebook, meanwhile, is still seen as an experimental ad medium.

MySpace, additionally, has trumpeted the buying power of its members with the likes of a high-profile campaign by luxury jewelry brand Cartier earlier this year.

But I'll give Wolff some credit: he sure knows how to drum up controversy.

[eagledrc]

While I don't totally agree, I do think that Myspace is stupid..I have one, but I don't use it very much. Facebook is so much better...But many people say Facebook is hard to use, and I agree - it takes some getting used to.

[gsekse]

Some of us are busy enough without Myspace or Facebook. Many Myspace pages that are linked to me tend to hurt my eyes! I lived without social web sites for the last 40 years and I think I will make it without them in the future.

[Magallanes]

Myspace and facebook are for a vast group of people that want a webpage but haven't the courage to mount one by themself.

*Domain name : $ 20 x year.
*Hosting : $8x month = 96 x year with free setup, you don't need to care about programming, just choose between a pre-installed system and go.
*Setup and tune your page : a weekend.

Of course it is not for free but the difference is you can apply "my page, my rules".
And still you can earn money via ads.

[tacit]

He almost got it right. Myspace isn't FOR cretins; it's RUN BY and SECURED BY cretins. It's buggier than a South American jungle, its security is a sad mad joke, and its overall coding is hopelessly sloppy and incompetent.

I don't think that says anything about the folks who use it, though--only about the folks who wrote the software.

[wigmo]

Who is this guy? Why does anyone outside of NYC or SF care?

[karpenterskids]

1. Many many manyyyy people that are on Myspace have passed the 8th grade.

2. While many people on Myspace are poor (myself included), so are many people on Facebook. Since neither costs any money, it's not realistic to claim that Facebook is for rich people while Myspace isn't. Both accomplish the same purpose (be it promoting your band or just social networking), and the only true difference is that Facebook is newer.

[pctec100]

I mostly agree with his opinion. I think myspace drew a lot of people into social networking but once they use facebook they are more inclined to prefer it. I do find that more of younger friends or those who are relatively uneducated are the ones who have stuck with myspace.

[ColonelTravis]

Michael Wolff is wrong - he should have said, "MySpace is the most (expletive)-up, (expletive) (expletive), poorly designed, (expletive) ugly, piece of (expletive). (Expletive) Tom can go (expletive) himself in a (expletive) (expletive) and throw away his (expletive) white T-shirt and get him some (expletive) (expletive) new clothes with all the (expletive) money he's made off that (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) (expletive) site.

[NetwokingGuru]

Michael Wolff's comments read like a right wing rant about "those pesky creative types." Let's face it, Facebook is a cesspool of same and I get the feeling that if Mark Zuckerberg and Co. had their way we'd all be mindless zombies consuming products and poking each other ad nauseam . Ever wonder why Facebook aps are so popular? It's because they are the only area where you can exert even the tiniest bit of creative energy.

Uneducated? Give me a break Wolff. Facebook is about privacy settings, not personality or even smarts. Social networking is very quickly becoming more than just messaging your mom about what's for dinner and networks that foster creativity and expression like Myspace and Nexopia.com are quickly gaining ground. Facebook can have their frightened bourgeoisie hoards using their platform to plan their next family road trip to Disneyland. I'd rather connect with people with a desire to broadcast personality and opinions.... and p.s; I have a University degree.

[simplelifer]

Michael Wolff "drum up controversy"???

I'm not Myspace user, but I'm now thinking of becoming one because I didn't pass my 8th grade, yes poor too (but healthy and happy), and having hard time understanding why what Mr. Wolff's stereotype towards a particular web service provider is important.

Controversy? If Bill Gates saying: "I think Cnet News is a wonder business model because it's neither a news site, nor a blogging site", as he continues, "yet it generates lots of traffic (hence translating to lots of ad dollars) from people seeking technology related news but received blog contents instead; so yes, some would argue that websites like this is more or less a Web 2.0 scam for the masses." --- Would something like this controversy or fact, Miss McCarthy?

[Super2online]

Personally, after looking at what Microsoft is doing with the new Windows Live social networking initiaves that are about to release this week, I think they are the only ones that are actually getting it right.

In the real world, people socialize everywhere they go, not in one spot like the walled gardens that My Space and Facebook are. Socialization should be built into everything. There offering will be integrated into XBOX 360, Windows Mobile, Zune (which already had a major socialization component built in) and all of the many many Windows Live services. This is why I think Microsoft has it right. I haven't heard anything but integrating into Media Center and MSN would be a smart move as well.

The best place to learn about it all that I have found is over at www.liveside.net they have it all documented with tons of screen shots. I for one am looking forward to leaving the My Space and Facebook walls behind!

[sullivanjc]

I think he misses the point. I don't generally frequent MySpace for intellectual enlightenment or to establish some kind business contacts. It's for entertainment. The hole-in-the-wall sports bar with the less affluent crowd is usually more fun than than the bar in a high class country club because you get a more diverse and colorful crowd. So it is with MySpace.

He also does not seem to realize that cretins are *everywhere*. Some even write biographies....

[john55440]

I have a Myspace account, a graduate degree, and am not poor.

I use an alias, for privacy purposes, and therefore refuse to join Facebook.

[Harrison912]

Thanks, Caroline, for this article. I'm on both FaceBook and MySpace for the purpose of socially marketing my safety and security web site as well as raise awareness for it's products and I've never been identified as a cretin preceeded by any form of expletive.

I'm on lots of social networks and interact with many business owners who do likewise and I do not consider any of them to be cretins. If this is true, then I think it's time to redefine the term "cretin" to mean, "A well educated business person looking for an inexpensive yet effective way to market their businesses."

[john55440]

Speaking of "cretins", our current financial crisis was caused by people with MBAs in Finance, from fancy ivy league colleges. In practice, these are the dumbest people on the planet, with no common sense.

[schmoogle]

Economic standing has nothing to do with sophistication. I think that he has made that clear with his ignorant comments. Being poor does not make you tacky, you can be so even with plenty of money in your pockets. Michael Wolff is proof of that.

What an (expletive)!

[Gabey8]

He can't offer an opinion of Myspace users without resorting to an expletive, and he's calling OTHER people cretins? Hmmmm.

[crpierce]

Obviously Wolff is lashing out. To say that the only people on Myspace are backwards and only have an 8th grade education is ridiculuous. I'm on Myspace, and I have two degrees in engineering. Oh wait, let me dumb it down so I can fit Wolff's expectations, "I has degrees in enganearing, I is on myspace."

Seriously, who cares if people use Myspace and Facebook? They do the same thing, connect people to other people. What's the big deal in that? If people have such a tiff about both, then why not use LinkedIn, Hi-5, Xanga, or any other social site that can be found on at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Our Economy is in the toilet right now and someone is crying about social sites and blogging...awesome, glad to know where priorities stand with those people.

[Boulderite]

If you are involved with music you need to be MySpace. It's set up for that.

But MySpace hasn't been as influential in launching bands as the media has been led to believe. It's essentially just another mass media outlet, where money can buy visibility.

The biggest reason MySpace has lost some standing is the use of friendbots. Once the hookers started inviting everyone to be their friends, MySpace became a place where spam was rampant.

Another problem with MySpace has been that it is less about communicating with friends than it is about turning yourself into a star. There's a lot of "look at me" posting, which isn't all that entertaining.

And some of the videos that are featured by MySpace on home pages is of the "drunk monkey attacks dog" variety. Again, pretty low-brow stuff.

You have to spend time on MySpace if you are involved in music, but I can see why some people distain it.