MySpace: Revisiting the Online Playground of My Preteens
MySpace was the interactive playground to be on when I was in junior high and high school for a quick minute (2008–2010). It was the hangout that the cool high schoolers were on to stay in touch with their friends that went to different high schools but still lived five minutes away. It was the place to post your silly Photobooth pictures — pictures that warped your face on Apple computers — and edited selfies usually on Photobucket or Picnik websites.
Ultimately, MySpace was a place for preteens and teens to show off that they had friends, a cell phone that could take pictures, and the ability to edit pictures to make their eyes a little brighter. MySpace’s history seems like a cheap idea when you actually read about it. It was created from copies of the more popular features of Friendster. The domain for MySpace was created the year I was born, 1996, which seems very hard to believe since it wasn’t founded by Tom Anderson until August of 2003. A full timeline of the biggest stories involving MySpace can be found here.
The actual face of MySpace has changed drastically in its roughly 19 years of existing. Here is the first archived site from the site:
There are no pictures, just three small boxes with links. It is not even a social media site — there is no text box to enter a username and password. It is pretty unattractive in my opinion as well. In the mid-90s, some forms of coding had not even been invented yet, like JavaScript, WebDNA, just to name a couple. It was a very basic website with very little options of what one could do.
Here is a more familiar looking interface of MySpace after it had been founded by Tom Anderson:
I remember my older sister logging into this page and thinking that she was so cool and mature. This page actually has a “Member Login” box. My favorite part of the page is the part that introduces you to “Cool New People.” The word “cool” was frequently used in the late 90s and early 2000s (and even so today, but more so back then in my opinion). The actual page is still pretty basic, with only a couple images. The MySpace Member Blogs users’ names are either basic names or cheesy usernames, using 1337 (pronounced leet) speak. L337 speak is a shorthand form of writing used on the internet interchanging words, letters, and numbers. Allegedly, l337 originated from video gamers and is short for elite speak. Now, people use l337 as a joke since it was mostly used in the early 2000s.
For fun, here is the MySpace I know and loved:
It is increasing its number of pictures, links, and overall content, but it doesn’t look too different from the one before.
Finally, here is MySpace today:
This looks nothing like the previous pictures. Before, MySpace was prevalent at the top of the pages, and now it is tiny in the bottom left corner where the music discovery section is. The background is now black instead of blue which it had always been. It seems to be more of a news site than a social media site, although there is a place to log in or sign up. There are many more pictures and they are much larger in size — and they vary in size for a change.
I do not use MySpace anymore, since Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have caught on. Those websites are all more attractive and easier to navigate in my opinion. Also, all of my friends are on them so it would be useless for me to use a social networking site without the people. MySpace will always hold a special place in my heart, just like the physical parks at which I used to play in my neighborhood.
