Do you remember MySpace? Who can forget the days when creating personal, colorful, online bulletins was the most popular form of social media. It was the most popular website to be seen on and could be making another appearance soon. Students should keep an open mind when it comes to revisiting the world of MySpace in the upcoming months.
MySpace was originally founded in 2003 and was the trendiest site for teens to express their unique personalities. It gave users the ability to share everything from personal photos to musical interests, as well as ability to create a blog in a safe sharing community. Musicians especially loved MySpace because it was the only way to connect and share songs with people in a time before YouTube or Facebook became popular. Some 76 million U.S. visitors had connected via MySpace by October of 2008, but this new item became old news when users became bored with having to keep up with the customization of pages and being bombarded with advertisements. By this time Facebook was on the rise and becoming mainstream, causing MySpace users to socially “upgrade.” The once fun idea of making personal “bulletin boards” lost its shine due to the influx of social network giants who sported an unpolluted and more appealing, uniform design, like those of Twitter and Tumblr.
Most recently, MySpace has been working to make a comeback by cleaning up the website and modernizing it, adapting to today’s online social society. The leader of this new reimbursement idea is singer-actor Justin Timberlake. According to CBS News, the former ‘N Sync star is said to have bought MySpace last summer from News Corp. for $35 million in stock, far less than its initial value of $580 million at a time when it was a dominating force in the online world. Timberlake is going to be the lead promoter of MySpace’s relaunch and has already appeared in their first commercial, which gave the media a glimpse of what to look out for.
The new site looks like a more entertainment-focused version of Pinterest, with connection characteristics similar to those of Twitter and Facebook. It is much cleaner and more uniform, compared to the old, cluttered look of its former self. MySpace says it will keep the original ideology of being a place to play, discover music, add photos and videos, create playlists and connect with artists, but will let users do so more easily, like Twitter and Facebook.
Though MySpace representatives are saying they do not have a set release date and are still working on it, MySpace 2.0 might be the new “old” social media website people should get excited for.
