Unprofessional? Or just uncool?

I know I'm beating a dead horse, but my boyfriend pointed out this article to me in the New York Times, and after reading it, I just had to respond.

I never really knew what bothered my about myspace (and yes, I am bothered by it, sort of like that bad gut feeling) until I read John August's comment in the article, which he says, "Visit any random profile on MySpace, and you are instantly beamed back to the Bad Old Days of Web design, with flashing graphics, unreadable text and — worse — random songs that start playing unbidden." (You should also check out the comments of other myspace haters on his blog.) Visiting myspace is a flashback to surfing the internet circa 1993. I know I'm not some stellar web designer (not yet at least), but it's hard for me to stomach a poorly designed site. (If anyone is interested in a well designed site, check out Veerle's Blog.)

Myspace isn't even used for social networking. Most people just want exposure and keep in touch with long lost high school friends (but mostly the former). It's not only hard to see with the large flashing heart obscuring the badly-colored text, the profiles are poorly written (if there are any coherent sentences). It's like Xanga on an acid trip.

And it's not that the site is "unprofessional," there's just no method of filtering the new comers. Myspace is the community college of social networks; anyone in the community can enter like crack heads, prostitutes, drug dealers, you get the idea. There's just no restriction upon entering. And what is up with the "Cool New People" features? Whatever reason are they justified as "cool"? The site, in lacking filtration, allows anyone in myspace, and therefore you get your motley crew of douchbags who message who about the latest party in town or creeps who want to be on your friend's list because you look cute. It's deceiving because no one really posts their real information anyways.

I'm probably sounding a lot like a snob with this whole secret-password-please to enter a club. But everyone who went to real college knows that community colleges aren't really ... well, esteemed, and I guess that's how I view myspace.

But I'm also the kind of person who'll go against the flow for the sake of rebellion (fuck jumping the bandwagon!). Maybe if Tom cleaned up the site a bit and got rid of the moronic profiles I'll be his friend.

Tags:

• technology
• social
• network
• myspace