“Good” kids gravitate towards Facebook; outcasts gravitate to MySpace, according to PhD candidate Danah Boyd.
Boyd’s hypothesis simple. MySpace has a reputation as being ”bad”, while Facebook, on the other hand, is all about going to college, and the values associated with getting an education. As a result, the two sites attract kids from different social economic groups.
“[In the early days teens] were told that MySpace was bad while Facebook was key for college students seeking to make friends at college,” explains Boyd in her 4000 word essay.
So who, according to Boyd, is on Facebook?
The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other “good” kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college … they are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.
And what about MySpace?
MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, “burnouts,” “alternative kids,” “art fags,” punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn’t play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.
Here I was thinking that MySpace was cool.
Anyone’s who’s actually used MySpace and/or Facebook will know that there’s an element of truth to what Boyd is saying, and while she’s guilty of making some sweeping generalizations in her essay, she’s found a lot of support on the blogosphere.
The co-founder of Salon, Scott Rosenberg, for example, had this to say:
“If you spend any time on these services you can find plenty of anecdotal support for her analysis … For teenagers trying to figure out who they are, the choice of social networking site has become one more agonizing crossroads of self-definition,” wrote Rosenberg.
Given that I’ve written a book about MySpace, I guess that makes me very, very bad.
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SECOND: MySpace Div and Flash layouts explained
You may have come across MySpace layouts that look completely different to the standard MySpace layout, and have wondered how the layout was created.
These profiles were created using a technique called “Div overlay” or “Div layouts”. If the profile uses a lot visual effects, more than likely Flash has also been used.
Let’s first of all look at Div layouts.
In a nutshell, how a Div layout is created is that the existing MySpace profile is hidden or covered up, and then a new profile is built over the top. That’s why you’ll see so many weird and wonderful layouts. The only real constraints are that you’re not allowed to cover up the MySpace advertisment, and you need to add back the MySpace contact functionality, in particular the Block User button (the MySpace folks don’t like profiles that can’t be blocked).
So how do you actually create a Div profile?
The best way to get started with Div layouts, is to take some Div layout templates (you’ll find plenty here) and then start experimenting. But before you start, let me explain what it’s all about.
The key to hiding the standard profile is a computer language called Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS allows you to set up a stylesheet that specifies what your web page looks like, and the MySpace people have used CSS to specify what a standard profile looks like.
The interesting thing about CSS is that the CSS code you place in your profile over rides the CSS code placed by the MySpace folks. What this means is that you can use CSS is redefine existing MySpace profile elements. Using the “visibility” and “display” properties you can stop these elements from being shown altogether.
Once the existing profile is hidden, the next step is to start building a new profile over the top. This is where the “Div” comes in. In HTML div tags mark out “logical divisions” of the web page. You can think of them as a container for your content. You can place text and images inside a pair of div tags, and then use the position property to position your content on your profile.
You do need to add back MySpace functionality, and this is simply a matter of creating HTML links in your profile to the various MySpace functions, such as browse, search, invite, etc, as well as the contact box functions, such as Send a message, Add to friends, etc.
As I said, the best way to learn how to do create Div layouts is to start experimenting with premade Div templates, and you’ll fnd plenty of free Div templates at various MySpace groups. My suggestion is to start with Free Divs.
There’s only so much you can achieve by coding your own Div layout, which is why many MySpace customizers move onto Flash.
Macromedia Flash is a multimedia authoring program, which is now distributed by Adobe. Flash is specifically designed to allow you to create web sites with animations and other visual effects.
Multimedia files created by Flash have a .swf extension. It’s possible to play Flash files directly from your profile, as long as you (and people visiting your site) have a Flash player installed—which 98 percent of people do because Windows XP comes bundled with a Flash player.
To create a Flash-based profile, you would need to cover the existing profile using the techniques discussed in this article, and then launch the Flash animation from within a Div, which you would need to size and position appropriately. For more information about Flash profiles, visit the MySpace group Copenhagen Tutorials.
To discuss MySpace mods and customization please visit the Hacking Myspace support forums.
John Pospisil
THIRD: MySpace disables links from Flash profiles
MySpace appears to have changed the way that profiles run Flash movies.
MySpace members with Flash profiles are complaining that links from within Flash no longer work, though the changes at this stage do not seem to be affecting all profiles in the same way.
Flash profiles still work, but links will have to be created outside of the Flash movie in HTML.
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FOURTH: MySpace made Photobucket; MySpace breaks Photobucket
MySpace has sunk to a new level of low; while recent events are still unwinding, it seems as though MySpace has gone ahead and blocked all user submitted videos and slideshows from Photobucket on their own user’s MySpace pages. But does MySpace have any good reason for this action? It’s possible, but looks to be more as an exercise of power.
The social networking site, Myspace, surely enabled the video and photo hosting site, Photobucket, to reach a level of success that would not have been obtained otherwise. But it certainly isn’t fair for MySpace to imply, “hey, we made you; we can break you.”
“We are not happy about this and we’re pretty sure you’re not happy either,” said Photobucket on their official blog. “We appreciate that you have invested hundreds of thousands of hours using the editing, remixing and management tools and features available only on Photobucket. In particular, you’ve all been really embracing videos at Photobucket — to the tune of 50,000 video uploads a day, which is great. Rest assured that your content is being kept safe in your Photobucket album even though it may disappear from your MySpace pages.”
MySpace claims the reason for the blockage was due to Photobucket’s usage of ad-sponsored slideshows appearing in comments and descriptions on their member’s pages, noting that it was a violation of the MySpace terms of service (TOS).
MySpace made claims to the fact that they had no method to distinguish between the ad-sponsored videos/slideshows and the ones that weren’t; so they simply blocked them all.
While this issue is yet to be rectified, many MySpace users are extremely angry about this; many people have spent a good deal of time building their profiles based on the Photobucket service, and can only hope that this situation rides out as soon as possible.
Photobucket added, ”We were not contacted directly by MySpace about this action, so we do not have any insight into their reasoning behind their actions. Limiting users’ ability to post their content would seem to be contrary to MySpace’s mission and certainly to ours.”
But MySpace claims that they spoke to the company about their actions, and they refused to respect their terms. “We had no choice but to disable their service,” said MySpace, in a statement.
The entire situation is simply based on money; MySpace doesn’t want other corporations, specifically Photobucket, to capitalize on their success, and with good reason. Unfortunately, actions like these are all at their own member’s expense, and this was certainly a step that should not have been taken by the social networking giant.
Thanks to guest blogger George Gardner for this piece.
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