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Friendster the Paradox

Yes Tom is my friend... Myspace is probably the greatest invention since instant messaging. Myspace has become such a part of my daily routine that when i get to work and bootup my computer myspace.com is one of the applications i launch after Microsoft Outlook (and aim of course). Even my boss who is over 50 years old is on Myspace. She said her daughter got her into it hahaha. Cathey, one of my good good friends eats Myspace for breakfast. She logs on to Myspace daily, checks her messages and sends 1 friend request per diem, yea she has a quota. She is one of those Myspace people with a prodigious amount of friends like its some kind of popularity contest. Do you ever get those friend request from people you don't even know? Yea she is one of those. In fact you might have gotten a friend request or two from her in your Myspace lifetime. For me my friend list is limited to people i actually in fact know in person...

Call me a Myspace elitist but i don't want people i don't know personally on my friends list. It offends my online sensibilities if you will. Once a boyfriend of a friend sent me a friend request 3 times. I won't try to explain why he sent it 3 times but i was completely stupefied. Some people take this Myspace thing too seriously.

There are those people who keep their profiles private. I am not a very big fan of those. I think Tom should remove that option because there is nothing more annoying than trying to view someone's profile only to find out it is set to private. You feel somehow rejected, don't you? See you get home from a long days work and logon to Myspace hoping for a reprieve. But you notice that you have no new messages or new comments and so feeling a bit sad you resort to viewing someone's featured profile in the Cool New People section of your profile. You find yourself saying "WTF", why feature a profile if it's set to private to begin with ( but you click the photos anyway haha). Ughh Myspace can be so cruel hahaha... Just recently i found out that you can limit certain Myspace blogs to a preferred list of readers. But what Myspace failed to do which i consider very abstruse is listing the private blogs along with the rest of the public ones sucking you into clicking a blog with maybe an intriguing title. See for a blog-head like me, when viewing someone's profile, not only do i check for pictures but also blogs. And when a blog isn't available to read, it's sort of annoying. And it does not indicate anywhere that a blog is private until you click on it. Come on Tom...

Speaking of provocative pictures. There are those model wannabes that post model-like pictures in their profiles. Admittedly i like those pictures better than the professional victoria-secret-esque types. It's the girl-next-door hotties that really fixate me. But as a girl you must be aware that such provocative pictures evoke (excuse the term guys...) the prying eyes of the pervs. It's the old running to the store in a mini-skirt syndrome. What do you think it provokes when you post a half naked picture? What kind of comments did you expect to receive?; Nice dress, where'd ya get it?. No, you are going to receive equally if not more provocative responses from the mind of the ruttish hormone induced men of Myspace. And i love the blog about how the girl is so fed up and disgusted with the men that send her such lascivious comments. Hypocrisy i Say... If you don't like the impression that it provokes then may i suggest refraining from posting naked pictures?

Hypocrites, Myspace Breakfast and annoying Private Profiles aside there are many Myspace features that are awesome. I mean there is a reason why Myspace is such a popular website, right?. I like the "Blurbs" and the "Interest" area that allows you to talk about your favorite movies, tv shows, books, music and even heroes. Then there's the Personal Details such as Status, Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity and Religion. Best of all the ultra-cool comments area. I've never personally left a comment on anyone's profile unless they asked me too but getting a comment is pretty intoxicating, isn't it? You feel instant bliss as trivial a comment might be... You can post Bulletins to invite friends to parties or events that are automatically posted to your friends profile which unfortunately opens the opportunity for the abominable Bulletin Spammers. I hate those guys. Write a blog or something and stop wasting our time with the stupid chain mail (Tom i got an idea. Why don't you enable an ability to block bulletins from certain friends?)

Furthermore Myspace allows you to be express yourself via a vast array of profile modifications. Anything from html to css to mpegs can be implemented on your profile. Well perhaps too vast because some profiles are so intricately entangled that it can only be described as otherworldly. Profiles are so convoluted that there is no such pattern discernible to the human eye. They're certainly no wax museum with a pulse...

Personally i think friendster is better. I know many people that would beg to differ. They are the same people who now refer to friendster as the other Myspace or the fallacy that friendster is the the Asian version of Myspace. The paradox is, that friendster is the original friendster and friendster is the original Myspace not the other way around. Truth is without friendster there is no Myspace, just like without Napster there wouldn't have been all these free sites to download your free MP3's. Fact is online communities that allow friends to network with other friends have been around for many years. Neither friendster nor Myspace pioneered the online community. You may say friendster revolutionized it and Myspace elevated it unto the mainstream internet but they certainly did not start it. It is astonishing how friendster is predominantly Asian and how Myspace is significantly more diverse. Maybe Tom has something to do with it. But i gotta love both because to me it's a dead ringer...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Wednesday, June 28, 2006