The Syndromes of MySpace-ing
Y'know, MySpace is a great case study for showing how internet communities can reveal the contradictory nature of basic human needs, and how these human qualities are accentuated in such a system. Let's go:
1. Tasteful tasteless. 'I love everything. Please like me, my music is me so add me as your friend.' The need to have a distinctive persona and the need to have a 'fishing-net' persona that is accepted in many different social circles merge to create the tasteful but ultimately tasteless music lists.
"Music I Like: Yo, I like Fallout Boy, Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, The Beatles (cos you know, they are like, classic, if I put them here I'll attract more ppl to my profile yo), Creed, Matchbox 20, The Strokes, Green Day (I love punk!), Radiohead, Tool, 50 Cent, Death Cab For Cutie, Simple Plan, yeah, I love indie and emo. And a bit of that ska-shiznit. I like everything."
Don't get me wrong, I do actually honestly like all music. No really. Pssh, of course, no one says you must've heard the majority of an artist's works extensively before you can put them on your 'music list'. But c'mon, how many of those 150 artists do those people listen to regularly? Music lists lose meaning when they cover every 2nd known genre not to mention every new genre we create by splicing words together.
Like 'geek-brock'. This a subset of rock music created by artists who grew up in Brooklyn, who also wear those thick-framed 'Rivers Cuomo' glasses. Typically, these bands are made up of kids who excelled academically in high school but have since rebelled against higher education. Post-punk aesthetics but with computer-jargon. Geek-Brock, honestly, it's gonna be huge. Now let's get back on topic:
MySpace is about having the courage to show who you are bro. My solution for world famine: Narrow your list down to one artist. This way you're naked. 'Yeah kid, you and your wall of bands are like, totally pwned.'
I luurrrve Hanson.
2. Friendly friendlessness. The need to feel popular and included (hence adding so many friends) but at the same time the need for a friendship to have some sort of exclusivity so that it means something. Hence the merging of 4-digit friend-pools and the Top-8 system.
I dunno, I've had the privilege of being someone's 'No. 2'. But then I've since dropped way down. Actually, I've stopped using MySpace. I prefer to just call my friends, 'No. 4' and 'No. 6' in real life. When I walk around Uni, I am flanked by No. 2 and No. 3. They in turn are flanked by their own No. 2's and No. 3's. That's why it's so hard to get through the Quad these days. All these MySpacers are taking the friend-ranking system seriously.
The Rejection:
'Look guys, I've got 3402 friends, I can't like all of you. Geez, what part of 'we're just friends' don't you understand? I added you cos your profile picture was hot, that was all ok? You're my friend, but you're not really my friend. Only my really uber-cool super friends (aka 'comment hopping bunnies') get to be in my Top-8.'
3. Photo real unrealness. The need to be praised by others and the need to feel some sort of authenticity. This results in the 'search for the one magic profile photo that makes my arse look good' syndrome.
Procedure:
a) Buy a camera-phone.
b) Get you and a hot friend into the bathroom.
c) Look in the mirror and start taking photos, making sure you pout your lips.
d) Run out of memory on your phone.
e) Upload photos onto computer.
f) Systematically delete the photos that have red eye or have half of your face cut off until you have only one left.
g) Repeat until you have several hip looking photos that look like they were not taken in the same room in the same sitting.
h) Type in photo captions such as, 'Bubblyz and meeeeee ~~*~~' or 'BeSt fRi3nDs 4eva ^___^.' That's right, 'eva' with e-v-a.
Expect these comments:
'You so hot.'
'Mmmm I like the way your hair looks in this photo... can we meet?'
'That's a nice photo but wth is up with the rubber ducky in the background?'
-------
I signed up for MySpace a year ago. Today was the first day I'd signed in in months. I have one profile picture of myself from when I was 15. I have 24 friends half of whom have appeared out of nowhere. There's one Goth chick from the US and another girl from Australia. Sweeet.
My reasoning for being a non-MySpacer: It's too much work maintaining both my real life persona and another MySpace persona. I had to abandon one of them, so I chose real world me.
I'm sure most avid MySpacers are aware of the 'Spaceing mannerisms' I've mentioned above - so I've got a few questions for you guys:
Why do you MySpace?
What do you personally get out of the experience that you can't get from real-world interaction?
How much of an overlap is there between your real world social circle and your MySpace network?
How much of a role does MySpace play in what happens in your life?
How much time do you spend MySpacing?
What has resulted from the relationships you've formed entirely on MySpace?
I ask these questions with interest, as, I have no idea.
This post is way too long. Bye.
:oP
Dennis
1. Tasteful tasteless. 'I love everything. Please like me, my music is me so add me as your friend.' The need to have a distinctive persona and the need to have a 'fishing-net' persona that is accepted in many different social circles merge to create the tasteful but ultimately tasteless music lists.
"Music I Like: Yo, I like Fallout Boy, Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, The Beatles (cos you know, they are like, classic, if I put them here I'll attract more ppl to my profile yo), Creed, Matchbox 20, The Strokes, Green Day (I love punk!), Radiohead, Tool, 50 Cent, Death Cab For Cutie, Simple Plan, yeah, I love indie and emo. And a bit of that ska-shiznit. I like everything."
Don't get me wrong, I do actually honestly like all music. No really. Pssh, of course, no one says you must've heard the majority of an artist's works extensively before you can put them on your 'music list'. But c'mon, how many of those 150 artists do those people listen to regularly? Music lists lose meaning when they cover every 2nd known genre not to mention every new genre we create by splicing words together.
Like 'geek-brock'. This a subset of rock music created by artists who grew up in Brooklyn, who also wear those thick-framed 'Rivers Cuomo' glasses. Typically, these bands are made up of kids who excelled academically in high school but have since rebelled against higher education. Post-punk aesthetics but with computer-jargon. Geek-Brock, honestly, it's gonna be huge. Now let's get back on topic:
MySpace is about having the courage to show who you are bro. My solution for world famine: Narrow your list down to one artist. This way you're naked. 'Yeah kid, you and your wall of bands are like, totally pwned.'
I luurrrve Hanson.
2. Friendly friendlessness. The need to feel popular and included (hence adding so many friends) but at the same time the need for a friendship to have some sort of exclusivity so that it means something. Hence the merging of 4-digit friend-pools and the Top-8 system.
I dunno, I've had the privilege of being someone's 'No. 2'. But then I've since dropped way down. Actually, I've stopped using MySpace. I prefer to just call my friends, 'No. 4' and 'No. 6' in real life. When I walk around Uni, I am flanked by No. 2 and No. 3. They in turn are flanked by their own No. 2's and No. 3's. That's why it's so hard to get through the Quad these days. All these MySpacers are taking the friend-ranking system seriously.
The Rejection:
'Look guys, I've got 3402 friends, I can't like all of you. Geez, what part of 'we're just friends' don't you understand? I added you cos your profile picture was hot, that was all ok? You're my friend, but you're not really my friend. Only my really uber-cool super friends (aka 'comment hopping bunnies') get to be in my Top-8.'
3. Photo real unrealness. The need to be praised by others and the need to feel some sort of authenticity. This results in the 'search for the one magic profile photo that makes my arse look good' syndrome.
Procedure:
a) Buy a camera-phone.
b) Get you and a hot friend into the bathroom.
c) Look in the mirror and start taking photos, making sure you pout your lips.
d) Run out of memory on your phone.
e) Upload photos onto computer.
f) Systematically delete the photos that have red eye or have half of your face cut off until you have only one left.
g) Repeat until you have several hip looking photos that look like they were not taken in the same room in the same sitting.
h) Type in photo captions such as, 'Bubblyz and meeeeee ~~*~~' or 'BeSt fRi3nDs 4eva ^___^.' That's right, 'eva' with e-v-a.
Expect these comments:
'You so hot.'
'Mmmm I like the way your hair looks in this photo... can we meet?'
'That's a nice photo but wth is up with the rubber ducky in the background?'
-------
I signed up for MySpace a year ago. Today was the first day I'd signed in in months. I have one profile picture of myself from when I was 15. I have 24 friends half of whom have appeared out of nowhere. There's one Goth chick from the US and another girl from Australia. Sweeet.
My reasoning for being a non-MySpacer: It's too much work maintaining both my real life persona and another MySpace persona. I had to abandon one of them, so I chose real world me.
I'm sure most avid MySpacers are aware of the 'Spaceing mannerisms' I've mentioned above - so I've got a few questions for you guys:
Why do you MySpace?
What do you personally get out of the experience that you can't get from real-world interaction?
How much of an overlap is there between your real world social circle and your MySpace network?
How much of a role does MySpace play in what happens in your life?
How much time do you spend MySpacing?
What has resulted from the relationships you've formed entirely on MySpace?
I ask these questions with interest, as, I have no idea.
This post is way too long. Bye.
:oP
Dennis
posted by Anonymous at 1:42 pm
4 Comments:
Wow, I knew it was wierd... didn't know it was THAT wierd.
Hey Lauren - thanks for the long and detailed reply, that bit on the merging/separation between the two identities was interesting - eerily similar to what happened to some of the MUD-ers in the Turkle reading.
After reading your posts/comments I thinks it's fair to say myspace has good and bad points...although I am leaning (personally) towards the "too much work" and effort myspace entails side; but if you can manage your real life and also an identity on myspace, good on you.
sorry forgot to sign my comment
-Elaine
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