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MySpace scares Russell Beattie

MySpace scares Russell Beattie

Russell Beattie writes that MySpace scares him because he doesn’t get it, and I’ve got to say I understand why, considering there were 54 million users (who have blogs as standard) on the service and from recent reports the number grows between 100,000-300,000 users per week. Certainly the new owners of The Blog Herald, and anyone else interested in the growth in blogosphere would be wise to try to follow it. When most people in the blogosphere write about blogs and blogging they seem to ignore MySpace, and yet the reality is that MySpace is not only the biggest provider of blogs out there, its also where the vast majority of teens are based as well. Those teens in 2, 3, 5, 10 years time will be leaders in the blogosphere, and they are starting out at MySpace. Understanding them now will give anyone involved in the industry a better understanding of what to expect in the future.

If you are interested in trying out MySpace or want to connect on it, I’ve set up a MySpace site here and blog here. I haven’t had much time to play around with it yet but if anyone is interested we can do some exploring together. Certainly my first impressions have varied between “this is exciting…not” and amazement given the relative flexibilty the service provides in terms of customization and what not.

View Comments (4)
  • while the numbers at myspace are fascinating… how many people are actually using the blogging features? i think most people use myspace to stay connected with friends or meeting new people. it’s primary purpose is as a social network.

    there may be 54 million users at myspace but really i doubt if half even have blogs up and running on myspace. OR if they do have blogs on myspace, i’m willing to bet that they aren’t very active. i would count very few blogs on myspace as “real” blogs.

  • Travis
    the hard thing is that because MySpace isn’t indexed (my understanding is that they blog spiders) its hard to tell. Certainly my reading of the service and the demographic is that the user base would have far lower non-active members than say a blogging service like Blogger (the reasons for joining as well would indicate this, teens are joining because other teens are on it, their friends etc, its a must have in their demographic now). I honestly haven’t spent enough time on MySpace to form an opinion as to how many use the blog feature, but certainly the blog feature seems to be what’s mentioned most in relation to reports about the service, and the few sites I have taken a look at have it on and are using it. Maybe we might consider it blogging but not as we might otherwise know it, because the blogging in Myspace tends to look like a cross between a journal and a notice board :-)

  • Yes, Duncan, the MySpace arena is an amazing phenomenon, one that is largely ignored by “proper bloggers” with real blogs like yours and mine.

    My problem with MySpace is the porn that is rampant, the sleazy details the teens are revealing, and the online geezer predators, ala Dateline reports. Blog Safety site has precautions and warnings about such sites and how to be safe.

    MySpace can be a good thing. Teens writing, connecting, debating, sharing interests and music tastes, etc.

    I am actually studying MySpace off and on, and set up a “cannibal blog” within it, to slowly deconstruct certain mechnanisms. My blog is called SoMeEx (social media experiment). As soon as I put it up, cruddy soft porn ads appeared on it.

    Why does MySpace do this? If parents knew about it, they might not think it was so innocent. It’s basically a “hook up site” and little more. The high school kids treat it as an “in” thing, a fad. They use special terms like “bulletins” and etc.

    It’s an alien micro-blogospheria that needs more attention and inspection, both for what is broken and what is working.

    I

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