There is a current debate raging among parents and educators about the safeness and benefits of social networking sites like MySpace.com. Sadly, safety issues are just the beginning of MySpace.com’s problems. Also, there are now several amazing social media sites that offer you great features and opportunity. Instagram for example is a best platform to advertise your brand. You can also buy 500 instagram followers at Buzzvoice or more. This will give you chance to expand your network and audience. There are many reasons why MySpace.com should be avoided at all costs and Barefoot has outlined them here: My Top Eight Reasons for Hating MySpace.com.
Two of Barefoot’s Eight Reasons to Hate MySpace.com
The eight reasons sited in Barefoot’s article are all valid problems with MySpace.com. Let’s examine some of Barefoot’s reasons for not using MySpace.com and explore better social networking sites.
Barefoot wrote, as reason number eight, “You are not an HTML programmer.” Many of us, even with the fastest of Internet speeds, are tired of waiting for poorly designed pages with overlapping images and messed up fonts to load. So many profiles on MySpace.com look like they were created by computer school drop-outs, and are as ugly as the pink hair on a certain beauty school drop out in Grease. Really, nobody cares about your profile enough to wait that long. Sorry.
The layouts on MySpace.com also remind me of the early days of the web when new users through bright yellow font on an orange background with a transparent photo and floating logo made their web page stand out.
Barefoot also notes that “There is a whole industry growing up around building a MySpace page.” I found lots of inappropriate material when searching for MySpace and HTML. Perhaps Barefoot and I are just old, and not into “bling bling” sequined images for our web pages.
In his article Barefoot also noted as number five: “Those stats aren’t you.” The use of the statistics on the MySpace community is the most disconcerting. They read like a dating ad service. There is just something that feels a little seedy about MySpace’s presentation of personal data, including relationship status and sexual orientation.MySpace.com Devotees
The most frustrating aspect of MySpace.com is attempting to discuss the downside of MySpace.com with its cult-like followers. Their voices rise, their faces turn red, and they actually become insulted. MySpacers will defend MySpace vehemently.
It is out of ignorance, though, from not having gone around the Internet block enough times. They suffer and do not even know it, that is the saddest part.
When asked “Why MySpace.com” the following lame and inexplicable answers came back as “reasons.” The only part missing is the reasoning.
- “Everyone’s on MySpace.”
Acutally, no, they’re not. Not everyone.
- “It’s the only way to keep in touch with everybody.”
Please. In the day of free blogs, free e-mail, free home pages, video conferencing, and oh, a little invention called THE TELEPHONE, it is not the only way to keep in touch with people.
- “There’s no other site like it.”
There are two responses to this gem. One is to roll on the floor laughing, the other is to say, “Good thing.”
Alternatives to MySpace.com
There are alternatives. There are better social networking sites and options. Break free and run as fast as you can, to a better social networking experience.
- LiveJournal.com Community
At the heart of LiveJournal.com are personal journals. The LiveJournal community allows you set up a profile page with photos or images and include as little or as information as you want. Your journal entries can be public, private, filtered to certain groups, or be some combination of those options. There is a photo gallery and it’s easy to post images in your journal entries.
The page design options are easy-to-use and clean-looking, and not immersed with flashing and blinking advertising.
While LiveJournal is more than just a place for online journals. The community aspects of LJ are quite powerful. Easily read all of your friends’ pages on one page, ordered by the most recent post. The communities on LiveJournal are also incredibly diverse and very active. Users of the LiveJournal.com community can easily find a list communities simply by using keyword searching.
- Any other site besides MySpace.com
There are other alternatives. Find old school chums on Classmates.com or your college’s alumni page. Or connect on Friendster and Facebook. Share your life in images on Flickr.com.
Yes, some of these sites charge for extended features including LiveJournal.com and Classmates.com. Yes, MySpace.com is free. Just remember, you get what you pay for.
