Some students still prefer MySpace

By Gretchen Kunkle

Email is so six years ago. Now college students can keep in touch through social networks, like Myspace and Facebook. Some Western students prefer one to the other, and some use both social network services for different reasons.

Myspace is open to the public; anyone can join. Members can customize their page with music and different layouts. In addition, users can upload pictures and organize them in albums. Another common layout device among users is to place the results of personality quizzes on the page that they can take on a linked site.

Western freshman Moses Fields, for example, personalized his page with Los Angeles Lakers logo raining down over photos of Kobe Bryant. He also has a photo slide show with a Tetris game below it for visitors to play.

Many students use Myspace because they can keep in touch with friends who aren’t in school in addition to those who are.

Chris Hughes, the cofounder and spokesperson for Facebook, told CPNews in an online chat that they are going to make Facebook open to everyone.

“We want to do this in a way that preserves our users’ privacy,” Hughes said.

Fields said that he does not like the fact that Facebook, which launched in 2004, has gone global because he could not use it until he came to college, and now everyone can use it.

“That was one of the perks of Facebook,” Fields said.

Western freshman Allyssa Maag said that she prefers to use Myspace over Facebook, too. She said that she can have more friends, and she can load music to her profile.

“I’m an avid music collector,” Maag said.

Fields said he thinks that Myspace is more of a popularity contest so he prefers to use Facebook to keep up with his old friends.

“I have more friends on Facebook and more associates on Myspace,” Fields said.

Fields said that one of the cons of Facebook is its use of News Feeds and Mini Feeds.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, said in the CPNews online chat that they have the News Feeds to help students know more about what is going on around them and more about  the people they care about in their social network. He wants students to be able to make Facebook more efficient to know what’s going on in their friends’ lives.

Even with the complaints about the News Feeds, there are still a large number of people joining every day.

“We have over 9.5 million users and are the seventh-most trafficked site on the Internet,” Hughes said.

Junior Jason Briscoe said that there are many colleges that have Facebook, and it helps him keep in touch with them. Whatever friends are not attending college, Briscoe keeps in touch with on Myspace.

“I use an equal amount of time on each,” Briscoe said.

According to the Facebook Web site, previously only people with a supported email address of .edu, .com., .gov., .org or .mil were allowed to register. With Facebook’s expansion, anyone with a valid email address can register.

Zuckerberg said in a press release that many people are graduating, but want to continue to network with their friends from college.

With differing opinions about the networks, growth is a goal both networks have
in common.