Facebook vs MySpace

Facebook vs MySpace 

I was thinking about MySpace today (I was reading an article entitled 'Top 8 most annoying people on Facebook' and thought 'what a wasted opportunity, shame it wasn't about MySpace'). 

Anyway, I do miss it: I don't know if I miss being that excited about social networking, or because I was only allowed on the computer at home for 2 hours a night. But it was an experience, right? So I decided to compare the merits of MySpace with Facebook, because, well, listicles seem to get the most views and I am lazy.

1. Friends

MySpace had the whole top 8. You could get to your friends easily, and you could rank your friends (though obviously 'You're all the same position to me bbz!'). Facebook, sure, you can make lists of your favourite friends, but there is no ranking. Which to be quite honest, is better. Remember the tears of 'I was bumped off her top 8 for Bullet for my Valentine!' or because you didn't have a black and white picture like the rest of them. 

Facebook: 1

2. Profile

Facebook: blue and white. It's simple, it doesn't have any crappy music or green-on-white text and everyone's is the same. But on the other hand, let's express our creativity, man! It was way easier to quickly identify common interests and a great place to accidentally stumble upon a good song. 

MySpace: 1

3. Pictures 

The good thing about MySpace is that it was instantly gratifying because your teen friends sat in their houses like you waiting for their friends to upload pictures so you could comment on them (and get one back - PC4PC!) in their various states of ridiculous amounts of make up. And it wasn't called a selfie, it was called a MYSPACE PICTURE! But you didn't really tend to see much of what they were doing - just... pictures of them. Whilst Facebook has 'selfies' against it, and there's very much an air of 'LOOK AT HOW MUCH FUN IM HAVING!!!111!!' (or pictures of food), it feels a little more 'real' than MySpace - ie. not every single photo is photoshopped to shit.

Facebook: 1

4. Life updates

MySpace had bulletins, Facebook has statuses. Or is it stati? Anyway. Bulletins were used to play weird games with your friends or to complete self-indulgent quizzes, the answer of which even the completer of the quiz probably didn't even care about. Facebook statuses are used to rant about that guy in Tesco or to let us know when your baby's first shit was, so I don't really think there's a winner. Still, no-one cares about your life. 

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5. Functionality

Facebook has always been much more of a functional site, having originated from a university. MySpace, on the other hand, always felt like more of a game. It was ok to befriend a fellow studded belt-wearer, because it was more you know, style over substance. Who can get the most comments or compose the best burn about, shudder, Bebo? But Facebook is for people you know. Not necessarily people you like, but people you know. Which is handy if the only weirdos you like talking to are your friends. So, I suppose it depends how old you are. 

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So, to sum up, Facebook wins, probably because I remember it better, and also, on Facebook, there aren't as many people called xX-goth_girl-Xx.

On Superiority

I am not sure why I feel so strongly about this. I seem to be irritated by a lot of things that people do and say. It's something I think I inherited from my father, which is both good and bad - on one hand, I like that I am so bothered when people misuse an apostrophe, and that I get angry when people say ‘PIN number). On the other hand, is life just too short? I actually feel superior to people who use 'lol' as punctuation. But I'm not better than them. It's a big thing these days, though - everyone seems to be in a big competition to be 'better'.

But this new 'superiority' is somehow worse. It's like everyone wants to make themselves seem the worst off. It's like a really drawn out, hipster version of 'The Four Yorkshireman' sketch. 

They are simultaneously proud and self-deprecating about how uncool or old they are. 

All I seem to see at the moment is 'I'm such a geek/nerd/ [for liking Mariokart on the Wii/has seen Back to the Future]!' or 'Is the CD skipping or it supposed to be like that? I'm SO OLD' [when listening to a remix by Justice]. But they rejoice in this, whilst making the younger/less informed feel inferior somehow. It’s just a really crap, unoriginal way of being mock self-deprecating.

 

Another form of this comes down to individual taste. The ‘cultured people’ who think that their film or music taste is better than others’ just because they watch films with subtitles or subscribe to artrocker that their opinion matters more. No, Justin Bieber does not write his own songs and he is not to everyone’s taste but I reserve the right to like his music and not be scorned by an eighteen-year old music crusader. I actually saw on someone’s Twitter bio ‘I’m a food snob, I hate chains’. Get that organic carrot out of your arse – chains aren’t the problem – yes, some of them are genuinely bad, but we make judgement on the chain’s individual merits, just like with independent restaurants.

 

I’m not claiming to be exempt from this. I’m as bad as anyone. But I wish, sometimes, that there wasn’t this endless need to be the best/worst person in the room. Just be a person in the room. Which is fine.