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The Ethnography of MySpace
May 9, 2008 | |
The Ethnography of MySpace
MySpace began in 2003 as a home to twenty-somethings who were into indie music in
Los Angeles, California (Boyd, 2006). It grew as a response to the limitations of Friendster. The ability to personalize pages drew users to the site. MySpace today has more page views than any other site, with the exception of Yahoo!(Boyd, 2006). The majority of users are between the ages of 14 through 24. The minimum age to join is 14, although, from personal experience there are users much younger.
Upon joining MySpace, users are asked to create a username and password. The account is then verified through e-mail. They also ask to invite friends from the address book of the e-mail account.
Once the registration process is complete, users are able to write a blurb about themselves which can include interests, favorite book, favorite movie, etc. Users are also able to change the look of one’s site through the use of backgrounds, videos and music. For a novice user, the ways to change backgrounds is not obvious. However, with a little research, this task is easily accomplished.
Now once the site has the individual tastes of the user, the question becomes why users have flocked to MySpace and helped the site to grow at an incredible rate.
One of the prominent features that users utilize is the comments. Users can comment on other sites. Owners can reject any comments not wanted. This feature is utilized due to the ability to quickly respond. Unlike e-mail, the comments are for everyone to see who can visit the site.
Some other features that are utilized are bulletins that allow all one’s friends to see what is placed on the bulletin. Blogs are used by users to show what going on in the user’s life and are allowed to be viewed by anyone who visits the site.
In order to find more friends, one may join forums to find others who are interested in the same topic.
Other than the functionalities of features, the main reason join and go online daily is to keep up with friends and family. Instead of using the telephone to keep in touch with just one person at a time, users can keep up with multiple users. Users can also connect with bands and celebrities.
Some users have the ability to set their space to private, so that only other users accepted as friends can see the site. This is most recommended for underage users. Upon speaking with students about what they do when someone they don’t know asks to see their site, they immediately responded they don’t add anyone they don’t know or know about. If they have added anyone who acts inappropriately, particularly if they are overage, they delete them.
When exploring MySpace, one finds a wide variety of people. There are search functions that allow you to search for people with similar interests or search for people in your area. Everyone has allowed myspace to literally be that, their space. The spaces are as diverse as the population that is using it.
The functionality and ability to post on others spaces makes MySpace a site that will continue to grow. The site is keeping up with the demands for video and music and users can always continue to improve and change their site and as often as they feel is needed. Upon my joining MySpace, I can see why people use the site daily and feel the need to stay connected. I suppose the population that will continue to utilize myspace the most is the teenage and twenty or thirty year olds. It will be interesting to see if teenagers today keep up with and grow their site as they age.
Boyd, Danah. 2006. “Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace.” American Association for the Advancement of Science,
St. Louis, MO. February 19.
