Perspective: Why does MySpace think I'm a horn dog?

News flash: this Internet thing is going to be a big deal.

One of my work colleagues likes to shove that line in my face whenever I verbally stray into the realm of the painfully obvious. But technology adoption moves in fits and starts, and who can really predict the watershed event that officially crowns something as a phenomenon? I've been thinking about that a lot recently, especially after watching the surge in interest from the mainstream media in social networking.

Truth be told, I can't come down hard on the Johnny-come-lately crowd. This has been a slow voyage of discovery for a Beatles-era boomer like yours truly. Growing up in the late 1960s, I was ever wary of The Man and so remained entirely underwhelmed by the idea that I should contribute my own personal info to some goofy technological "community"--let alone one run by Rupert Murdoch.

My kneejerk response: Fuggedaboutit!

But even old yuppie farts have to change with the times or risk winding up like yesterday's fish. Social-networking sites may not all get the details right. But they all benefit from the big truth that some things about human nature don't change. For instance, people love to yak about themselves, and there's obviously no shortage of voyeurism out there. Even though that's not always going to work to the benefit of the larger culture, you have to take the good with the bad.

News.com Poll

And the winner is...
Which site will prevail in the social-networking game?

Facebook, hands down
With Murdoch's backing, MySpace.com
Neither; another service will soon take over
You kidding? Social networking is just a passing fad

View results

Besides, this has been nothing short of fascinating to watch develop. I must confess that some of it still leaves me perplexed. In particular, the concept of privacy that I grew up with no longer seems relevant. (If you think that's a positive or negative development, post your take in the TalkBack area below.)

No such similar hang-up has prevented millions of people from warming to the idea of engaging with others online in concentric mini-networks of interest or friendship. Maybe it wouldn't have happened as quickly, were we back in 1997, but now it's entirely natural for people to communicate in this way.

That's one reason why I finally got off the fence and went with the flow. The clincher was the stunning--dare I say counterintuitive?--success enjoyed by MySpace.com. This remains the biggest social-networking site of them all, yet the site features the most brain-dead user interface I've ever encountered. And it hardly matters a whit.

With a due nod to the great Buffalo Springfield, it became clear to me that something's happening here--even though what it is ain't exactly clear.

I don't know whether I'll ever become head over heels in love with this sort of thing. So far, social networking's popularity has been a generational thing, and I'm too much a prisoner of my past. Still, it's growing on me, and that's why I'm sticking with it. But I'm getting picky about where I'll spend my time.

While MySpace is currently No. 1, I'm not convinced that it's going to keep its lead for long. There are any number of small things about MySpace that irritate the hell out of me. Fakers hide behind phony handles, and the system assumes that I'm on the make for women (between the ages of 18 and 35, and between 3 and 7 feet tall).

Above all, the welcome screen is always cluttered with junk that's of absolutely no interest. I've since instructed the system not to make "sex fiend" my default setting. No matter, since I'm spending most of my "social networking" time on Facebook anyway.

MySpace, the biggest social-networking site of them all, has become a smashing success despite featuring the most brain-dead user interface I've ever encountered.

Facebook's twentysomething CEO Mark Zuckerberg made early mistakes, but he's learning. A little more than a year ago, the company moved beyond its limited college audience and opened up the network to everyone.

In May--and this was a prescient decision--Facebook opened up to let developers write applications for the platform. When Zuckerberg finally decides to sell or take the company public, that decision is going to be worth its weight in gold.

I caught Zuckerberg's talk on a panel discussion earlier this week at a San Francisco conference sponsored by Fortune magazine. Since opening up the platform, he said thousands of applications have been developed on the network.

"It has certainly grown a bit faster than we had originally expected. We thought there would be a lead time," he said. "That whole process got condensed to about a week."

It took only a week for the first new application to attract a million users. Now more than half the users have added an application to their Facebook pages. That's viral with a capital V.

Anecdotally at least, it's working. In the last month, friends and colleagues both report getting a flood of Facebook invitations from people they know. What's more, ComScore reports a surge in traffic from teenagers and adults since Facebook moved to open registration.

We can quibble about whether one social-networking site or another does the better job fostering community. I'll leave the wonky debates to others, but this concept is still in the early innings. The first student cohorts who have grown up with social-networking sites are leaving school, and now the graybeards are joining the conversation.

The next big thing? It's shaping up that way.

Biography
Charles Cooper is CNET News.com's executive editor of commentary.

More Perspectives

[Nunya Bidnez]

not ready

we were just getting up to posting comments...

[blakestar]

Agreed

MySpace is a cluttered, unasthetic, unintuitive site that is slowly
becoming another dating site while Facebook is the complete
opposite. I share your opinion, but am a younger generation.
Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I just can't bring myself to use junk.

[ITrogue]

i agree, cleaner is better

i feel dirty when i use myspace... and other than check messages, comments, and bulletin post. i don't really do much else with it. Their interface is garbage and obviously left over from it's spyware days. Tom needs to take a graphics or web design class. Facebook is soothing and actually entertaining to a point. Plus their mobile version is great! you can do everything you really need to do efficiently. I also like that their ad's are non-intrusive.

[Len Bullard]

And What Do I Get?

So I ask the obvious question about any site to which I would have to dedicate time, energy and sacrifice some precious anonymity:

--- What do I get? ---

A hooker needs flashy clothes. A call-girl needs an unpublished phone number manned by a discreet and nameless receptionist. Selling my reputation to the social network then migrating to the next-new-page is a bit like having to change churches because the choir hits sour notes. It might be better to decide if the pastor is the right one for my family.

When a system as easily gamed as these systems are becomes the arbiter of the current and short-term memory of myFace, it is time to unplug and go mow the lawn. Life is too short.

[bvdon]

late to the game

There should have been more discussion about the 'social
networking' sites out there. Second Life is huge, but there are
other sites building a following like Gather.com.

Still, I don't ever see myself giving too much info to any of these
sites. Anonymous is the way to go since you never know how
someone will use the info.

[as2319]

Experience, Society & Difference

The progressive alteration of socialogical connectivity patterns of the human animal should prove interesting as we continue to entwine technology with most common past time; communication.

I wonder if it will breakdown or promote the veritable cornicopia of differences (e.g. age, geography, education, generation, economic) in global society.

eGenerations is an alternative that offers experienced adults worldwide a place to connect, learn, and explore. While it didn't begin as a social networking site at all, it's Connect Channel has grown quite a bit, and boasts Members in 40 countries without any form of venture capital commonly thrown at most of what we hear about today.

[wauler]

I have it in theory what is the next big thing

Actually we are doing it in china and I am sure it gonna make huge sense shortly. I mean the future lies in web-based RSS and user-driven mashup, so the youtubes especially facebook vertically are in the right direction but not engough no wonder sometimes they will lost doing something offend their users. We must reject the concept doing the traditional Internet business let alone Operating systems like WebOs or Webservice Opening API. We must build the web as a platform which has dedicated title and entity thus we can have control to the customer so that we can grasp the internetlised content and application, there is a chinese saying:皮之不存毛将焉附. something like and Operator2.0, you know they have vendor of network equipment and handset maker help setup the infrastrcture and provide application then customers help themself generate content: voice, data and even more...But ours will quadplay within internet, software, hardware and media industry, like yahoo to media, salesfore to software, apple to hardware, so this is really gonna be future stuff and we are trying to make it in china. And definetely we have enter into an era of unified competition totally (同质化全竞争)thanks to the fantastic spurt of ICT and TMT world tend to be flat.
How:
vision, mission, strategy
vision, focus, execuation
innovation: speed and simplicity
engineering: user experience and security

[qwerty75]

Am I the only one that thinks online socializing

is an oxymoron?

[ralfthedog]

Am I the only one who is insulted....

Am I the only one who is insulted by the authors use of, "Horn dog", as a derogatory term?

Woof!

[dctechguy]

Great perspectives

I am also a late 60's boomer, and happen to work in media and technology. To keep up, I have created profiles on several social networking sites. The experience has been eye-opening. Some of my thoughts:

1) Most, but not all of the sites do have sloppy user interfaces. And of course, so many of the profiles are so poorly laid out or use graphics and colors that make viewing almost impossible. Forget clean interfaces and profiles. In America, the general population is more sloppy than well put together.

2) The whole "invite a friend" thing still strikes me as peculiar. I am stymied when a late teen or twenty-something invites me to be their friend. I always think, Why? And I fear if I do interact much, I will be pegged as a pederast or stalker. This is a difficult road to navigate, given today's openness. I just steer clear of these interactions, politely telling them I am not interested. This is to protect myself, which I think more people will do online going forward.

3) Yeah, privacy as we older folks knew it, is gone. I feel the online communities are often just like going to a nude beach. The majority of the visitors are there for fun, interaction, etc., with a few perverts floating around. There is no real privacy left in our modern world.

4) I do think parents need to coach their kids on how to be safe in these environments. Easy to say, but there will always be an occasional horror story. It happens in bars, college campuses, and playgrounds. Parental guidance is imperative.

5) I do feel in time, sites will evolve that will be highly segmented for specialized interests, and of course, a couple of biggies to entertain the masses.

We are in for some very interesting technology/social changes. It is in all of those who venture online to learn about and explore these communities - they are not going away!