Opinion: There's no consensus on what MySpace means, and for good reason: This is the first time mainstream culture has been exposed to large-scale social networking and the power of widespread, convenient interaction.MySpace is a behemoth. The social networking site is the second most popular site on the Internet, trumping even Google. It has over 57 million users, and is growing at about 160,000 users per day.
When News Corp. bought MySpace's parent company, Intermix Media, observers estimated they received about 10 percent of the Internet's $10 billion ad inventory for only $580 million. That inventory is estimated to be worth about $200 billion in a few years.
So on paper, everything looks good. But understanding the technological and cultural implications of MySpace is no simple matter.
The process is akin to the old aphorism about the blind men and the elephant. Everyone approaches the site from a different perspective, and that perspective—technologist, social researcher, soccer mom—informs their opinion.
Once you buy into a specific view, it can be difficult to find contrasting opinions. That may not be true if you're an obsessive blog comments reader or naturally inquisitive and Web savvy person. But the vast majority of people read the same opinions over and over again.
But MySpace defies pigeonholing because its size and adoption affects different segments of our society in many powerful ways.
Thus, there are several ways to approach MySpace and conversations about MySpace:
Most of these viewpoints are not mutually exclusive, and all are valid. We've never experienced such rapid growth in a social network. And, this is the first time that a large swath of society has been exposed to real social networking, and thus the power of widespread, convenient interaction.
We have never observed ourselves changing through technology on such a large scale. MySpace is a super public. MySpace terrifies most people to death.
It kinda scares me a bit. Maybe it's just because I'm writing this from Vegas, but MySpace is very much like a casino.
It's a maze of garish decorations, loud noises and song, populated by a broad demographic of Americana. There are normal teenagers. There are also strippers and call girls. The most exciting aspect of it is figuring out just what the hell you can get away with in there, and it's hard as hell to find your way out.
But however you view MySpace, its future rests in the hands of advertisers, morality crusaders and the fickle desires of an ever-evolving teenage demographic.
MySpace's greatest strength may be its willingness to just get out of the way of its users. The site doesn't want to be cool. It wants to let its users be cool.
And if MySpace can remain malleable enough, it can evolve parallel to the very idea of hipness. It can become simply a tool that enables hipness.
So like the devil before it, MySpace's greatest success will be convincing the world that it doesn't even exist.
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