Thing 18 Facebook and Myspace

I've had a myspace account for many years. If I had to roughly estimate when it was during the time I started college, about four years ago. I suppose I must have been living in my closet because my friend went on and on about it but for the life of me I couldn't understand what she was talking about. That's when I got my first crash course in myspace. She told me that it was a social network place and that I had to sign up for an account so that we could keep in touch. I had left Orlando to go to school up in Gainesville. I figured the request was reasonable and opened up and an account. I didn't fall in love with it right away. It looked rather plain and the only person I had that were friends were her and Tom. Over the years more and more people I had once gone to school with started finding me on myspace so I started to use it more often. I spiced up my layout and tried to add as many personal touches to make it feel more like me. But my myspace is set to private so most people don't have a lot to go on other than my display picture. I suppose lucky for them I'm so recognizable because it seems like I haven't aged a day since I was 13. All the same I'm always amazed by people finding me even if we haven't spoken in almost a decade. I prefer to have only friends and family on my myspace and an occasional comic site (I'm a big comic fan after all). I try to avoid strangers but some times people will come along and say they know me and have a picture to prove it but I still can't recall them. It's kind of hard to keep track of people when you've been to so many schools. So it can't be helped if I have a few mystery people here and there, it's worked out ok so far.


Since I already have a myspace I decided to open up a facebook and explore. I added some of the friends that I already had on myspace on to my facebook account. Apparently it's not uncommon to belong to several social networks. For some reason it just makes the world seem like such a smaller place. I had signed up for an account about a month or so ago and really found myself somewhat enjoying it. However, lately they have recently made so upgrades so I'm finding myself lost once again.

With myspace I can go to several different sites to find a layout or I can even tinker with the xhtml codes and design one of my very own. Right now the design on myspace is my own. In the background is a huge panda bear showing it's back to the viewer and underneath it is a much smaller panda with it's head poking out. The modules have a supergirl motif to it as well. My layout is simply put together. Nothing to flashy and not to much clutter. I hate clutter on a web page. It ruins the visual effect. When I asked my friends about layout designs on facebook they sneer at me and said what for? Supposedly grownups don't need flashy designs. I must have missed the memo for that. I wasn't at all satisfied with the plain layout and went in search for layout designs for facebook. I actually found some! But there was a downside. Unlike myspace where you can tinker with the xhtml and post with facebook you have to download some kind of software or other so that any layout you choose can be visual. At least on your computer that is. If your friend doesn't download it they would never notice your layout designs. I thought that was a load of stinky cheese if you ask me.

On myspace you have 4 options to converse. There's email, blog, comment, and bulletin. Email is standard, it's a personal note from you to your friend. No one else get's to see it. Blogs are notes you post that are attached to your myspace page. These are just one's personal thoughts that friends can view if the mood strikes them and they stay posted up unless you delete them. Comments are notes you post on your friends myspace page where they and they're friends can view. Bulletins are alerts that go out to all your friends so that if you have a message you want to send out at once it's easy then contacting them one at a time. With facebook? Good grief I'm not exactly sure. With my facebook some times I'll write a note and then my cousin comes along and posts a comment but when I reply back its on my page not hers so how does she know she's been responded too? Some times I'll write notes about books that I've read or moods that I'm in and I'll have one person comment on one thing while another is commenting on another so I'm trying to respond to both and before long I have no idea where the heck I'm at. Facebook also has email and instant messager. Maybe I'm just to use to myspace but for me it just seems more easier to communicate than on facebook.

I joined facebook apps for librarians and I've visited the Alachua County Library District myspace page to explore what these sites have to offer to the library. Both sites are useful resources for providing knowledge to librarians and patrons alike. With myspace the lastest news for ones library is neatly posted and organized providing fast facts like NEFLIN's 23 Things and other local events. It even has video on bookmobiles and that one video about what we do at the library with the fun music and all the people I recognize from work. Also what Erin did with that one myspace page was very hip!

Even though I hear more and more people signing up for facebook and look down on myspace I think I'm always going to prefer myspace. In matters on design and organization of how people communicate I think myspace has facebook beat hands down.