[Sigia-l] Your take on MySpace

[John Benjamin]

I've been thinking about this a lot, mostly because other people I
know have wondered the same thing. "MySpace sucks! Why is it so
popular?"

One facet that gets missed in this debate is why *MySpace*. Why is
*it* so popular, when other sites have basically been doing the same
thing for the last ten years?

Here's what I think are some primary reasons for MySpace's success:

"Liberty Via Constraint"
MySpace allows for a lot of personalization with a pretty short,
shallow learning curve. The profile modifications people achieve via
CSS take some knowledge to create but not to implement. Implementation
is as simple as copying the code you're told to copy and pasting it
where you're told to paste it. Previous sites failed in this regard,
from Geocities (not enough constraint) to Friendster (too much).

Geocities was too hard to personalize (either you had to use their
early-Internet-style site-builder, which sucked, or you had to know
HTML). Friendster was too constrained-- people really really really
like to make their profile unique, or semi-unique, even if it means
it's unreadable. They like to add stupid, goofy crap that they think
is funny or moving, from background images to embedded video to
glitter teddy bear pictures. :-/ It lets them make their "profile"
reflect their personality. It lets them imbue their comments and
messages with their personality.

All this time, MySpace is telling them what they can do, or
facilitating someone else to tell them what to do. You can do a lot
with it from the get-go, but the REALLY cool stuff is just a step
away-- but you have to figure it out or ask someone who already knows.
MySpace applies just enough constraint to make the user feel liberated
rather than oppressed. (see "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz:
http://tinyurl.com/hj6wj) At the same time, they've left enough hidden
possibility in the site to intrigue the user. From how to repost a
bulletin to how to customize your profile to how to embed a YouTube
video.

"Chain of Cool"
As I understand it, the site was founded by popular party people, and
they used their status (as PPPs) to get other aspiring party people to
join the club. "All the cool kids are doing it." Still works that way
today; many of those who join do so because everyone else has. The
functionality encourages this by encouraging users to play in the
MySpace sandbox.  Each feature of the site is contained within the
site, and doesn't lead the user away. It's like a Web terrarium.

"Focus and Inspiration"
You don't have to sit in your chair, staring at your MySpace profile
wondering "what do I do now?". It tells you-- general interests,
music, movies, schools, companies, who you'd like to meet, etc. It
takes the chore of figuring out what there is to put on a Web page and
transfigures it into the fun exercise of picking and choosing what
you'd like to include. Blogs (which are also part of MySpace) do the
same for the everyday "home page"-- they show you what to do with all
that creative freedom. There's like a hundred million blogs now.

"Perceived Indispensibility"
One of the strategies some business models use to keep customers is to
make it difficult to leave. Banks and ISPs come to mind. MySpace does
the same thing by making you feel left out if you're not using the
site. You don't see the funny video posted to the Bulletins. You don't
know when the SnuffleUmps are playing down at the club. You don't get
invited to the party on MySpace's event system. You don't know what
Tiffany said in Brad's comments that got Angela so upset. You're just
not part of the party, man.

"Voyeurism"
MySpace is enormous. There's a lot there to look at and see. The
voyeuristic effect is powerful, and there are parts of MySpace
profiles that you can't see unless you sign up. This is incentive
first to go look and see what the fuss is about, then to sign up, then
to get hooked on searching for freaks to stare at/hook up with later
this evening.

J

P.S. This is me: http://myspace.com/a1phab3t
P.P.S. I'm 34

On 8/8/06, Lee Hsieh <lhsieh at simple-clarity.com> wrote:
>
> It mitigates teenage angst in the form of public self-expression and
> recognition.  Design per say, for many of the users, does matter but takes
> place in the form of personal interests displayed(eg, fashin, music,
> friends, etc).
>
> In terms of critical mass, it was achieved through 'low barrier to entry.'
> It may not be the best user experience to UX folk but is good enough for
> many who regard it as a 'sandbox' of sorts where it doesn't feel overly
> groomed and ok to 'get dirty' so to speak...
>
>
> -------------------------------
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:52:50 -0500
> From: Listera <listera at rcn.com>
> Subject: [Sigia-l] Your take on MySpace
> To: SIGIA-L <sigia-l at asis.org>
>
> OK, why does it have 50 million users?
>
> What would one have to smoke to grok it? Does it have any architectural,
> functional or UX competitive advantages? Is it a fad? Anomaly? Can one be
> over 23 and still get it? Do you?
>
> ----
> Ziya