Everybody's on MySpace

[Charlie]

I have got a MySpace page but I can't get into it. No time, no time...

Best to stay as you are, Adam, it's horrendously addictive.

And Leon has made it worse, by showing me how to install the map facility, so now I scour the globe to see where my visitors are based - Moscow, Rome, Belize, Bedford, Loughton Essex, and scattered across the United States. It only catches the new visitors from when we installed it (last Friday), so the first 400 have been missed.

[Gordon Moore]

Four hundred....are you famous or something?

(he he)

[Charlie]

are you famous or something?

Dear Auntie Gordon

As the list of friends gets longer, I'm tempted to weed it out and keep it to people who seem connected to what I think I'm doing.

But while I invite such people as I think of them (or notice them on other people's sites), I get requests from would-be blues singers and run-of-the-mill singer songwriters asking to be added.

It seems churlish to turn them down, but I don't want to have a vast number of unrelated 'friends'.

Please advise what you think I should do?

[NormanD]

I have got a MySpace page but I can't get into it. No time, no time...

Best to stay as you are, Adam, it's horrendously addictive.

Here's a view on this from yesterday's Guardian, the Technobile column:

MySpace doesn't offer real friendship and is full of stuff I don't need to know. So why am I addicted to it?

I'm apologising in advance in case this article ends up being a tad disjointed. Sorry, I can't help it. The lure of the web keeps whipping my attention away. It's been at least 50 seconds since I last checked my MySpace - and who knows what I've missed out on.

I mustn't forget to have a quick look at my Facebook page too. And Bebo. Then I can spend some quality "me" time watching a clip of a cat peeing on YouTube. The social networking phenomenon is getting way out of hand. A friend has listed one of her hobbies as simply "MySpacing". Which, when I'd first seen it, made me laugh a lot, but I swiftly realised it was a Friday night and I was sat reading profiles in the early hours. Thousands of people are doing the very same thing right this second. Homework sits untouched, dishes remain mucky and office managers up and down the country are wondering why everyone looks busy yet seems to have stopped working.

Ironically, the invention of social networking has discouraged everyone from being, erm, sociable. I send messages to my housemates rather than just, you know, talking to them.

And what a false social setting it is anyway. It's clogged full of information we don't need to know about each other. Endless lists of favourite bands, books, TV shows. It's not important. When was the last time you met someone in a bar and then reeled off, in order, your top 10 Johnny Depp films?

Plus, people are proud to have hundreds of friends - which is lovely - but closer inspection reveals that most of these friends are just bands they happen to like. Fair enough, I suppose.

The saddest thing about all this is that I have been sucked in as much as everyone else. My friends list has swelled to an impressive 181, but deep down I know Henry the Hoover isn't a real mate. Shamefully, my lack of self-discipline means I can't face logging off. Just as I try to tear myself away, someone will post something that'll keep me there for another 10 minutes and before I know it, it's 3am.

Back in the days of the glorious Sega Mega Drive, my mother allowed me to play computer games only on certain days of the week. As you could expect, this was a unanimously unpopular decision. The Sega Days meant that I wasn't wasting my entire youth trying to thwart that pesky Dr Robitnik. Instead, I'd be out with my football boots on - and having a much better time than I've ever had playing Sonic the Hedgehog, of course.

MySpace has no such motherly protection. Boy, how I wish it did. Every day is now a MySpace day. What bliss it would be if after an hour of pointless surfing an error message appeared, telling you bluntly: "Dear User, session expired, get a life."

Your only choice would be to click OK, pop outside, have a kickaround and maybe even try talking to your friends in the old-fashioned manner that involves use of your vocal chords.

Failing that, my (real) friend Sophie's recent cry for help (posted on MySpace, naturally) offers another valid option. "Ahhhh I'm meant to be revising!" she began. "Will someone please delete MySpace?" Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to set up a Second Life account.

Dave Lee
Thursday February 22, 2007
The Guardian

[Gordon Moore]

are you famous or something?

Dear Auntie Gordon

As the list of friends gets longer, I'm tempted to weed it out and keep it to people who seem connected to what I think I'm doing.

But while I invite such people as I think of them (or notice them on other people's sites), I get requests from would-be blues singers and run-of-the-mill singer songwriters asking to be added.

It seems churlish to turn them down, but I don't want to have a vast number of unrelated 'friends'.

Please advise what you think I should do?

Ask for an advance of course!

[Leon Parker]

Addictive it is! I have to see who in the world has touched my map. It would be interesting to get a dot from the North Pole but at the moment I seem to be getting many hits from the USA, and One from India. I have three sites set up and two are for networking and promotion as well as making new music cyber friends. I one have for the Belly Beats festival http://www.myspace.com/festivalofbellybeats and the other for the night Myself and Garth Cartwright do http://myspace.com/princesamongstmen2007 These are artists ones which differ a little but can add up to four tracks of music. I have also now seen people with mp3 players with many tracks, on my space so you can add loads of your music.

I like the fact you can add video and slides. With video you can mess about and edit something for your own creative juices and add more music. Slides just give is a nice view of your favourite pic’s or music related stuff. I was looking through myspace the other night and came across a site called http://www.myspace.com/blueslegends which I liked and I can even make friends with Slim Harpo!! You can get stuck here for hours.
What was very nice was people contacting the Princes Amongst Men site and saying how much they enjoyed Garths book. A very good outlet to be creative in the things you enjoy in life.

What is your site Con and anyone else feel free to add me as your music cyber friend.

[Con Murphy]

What is your site Con and anyone else feel free to add me as your music cyber friend.

For what it's worth:-

http://www.myspace.com/conmurph

I've placed a video of the wonderful Estrella Morente doing Zambra on my video slider, as mentioned by Dayna elsewhere. Plus the "controversial" K'Naan video.

I've already added the Princes...space and a comment, Leon. I've managed to avoid (total) addiction up to now, just adding the odd tweak here and there and having a brief look round other sites every so often (well OK then, every day).

However, my enthusiasm took a knock at the weekend when my step-daughter discovered I had the space and did a passable impression of my own reaction to her first artistic attempts when she was three years old. I think she sees my "space" as one big virtual dad-dancing-at-a-disco. Maybe that should spur me on.

Anyway, there's some great stuff out there so it's worth browsing around even if you don't sign up yourself.

[ritchie]

http://mashable.com/2007/02/26/fakeyourspace/

damn, damn, damn now I'll have to be content with real people.

[Gordon Moore]

I've uploaded my new photo. I can't tell you how much trouble it was to get one that I liked.

I'm so vain, I probably think this post is about me.

http://www.myspace.com/gordonfmoore

I've asked Charlie to be my friend, here's his payment

A :) well it's worth...?

[Gordon Moore]

So 402 friends eh Charlie. Not that many really. You must be feeling lonely.

I note that I had to go to page 10 (out of 11) to find me me me. I was gutted. I thought we were bessie mates. Still Norman was there as well.

Anyway, if you need someone to talk to about it ... I'll be there for you, Oh I'll be there for you....da da da da dah da dahhhhhhhh.


:()

[Charlie]

I note that I had to go to page 10 (out of 11) to find me me me. I was gutted.

That's only because I don't know how to put you on page 11.

Or how to move anybody, come to that. Some new 'friends' come in on page 1, so everybody shuffles one place to make room; others start the back. what's the deal?

If you're hoping to make my front page of best friends, Gordon, dream on. At least until you make some music and put it up on your profile. Hint: I really like 'Walk on By' by Leroy Van Dyke. If you could do a cover and come close to his version, you'd be in with a good chance.

[Gordon Moore]

That's only because I don't know how to put you on page 11.

Funny man (hehe)

I really like 'Walk on By' by Leroy Van Dyke. If you could do a cover and come close to his version, you'd be in with a good chance.

uhmmm, banjo and twanging bit of metal...you're on. :()


I may be some time...

[Charlie]

I'm not particularly bothered about linking us up to famous names - most of their sites are run by proxy anyway

One thing about the list of friends is - you can't tell who asked whom.

So while I am happy to own up that it was me who invited David Byrne into my cyber circle, I would like it to be known that Madonna and Patti Smith asked me. I know, I know, you're asking, why him? My very own question.

I'm not sure if Madonna is anything to do with the site in her name, but it's pretty clear that Patti Smith's is genuine.

So lets see, who else is there? Debbie Harry?

The Shangri Las? Are they really on myspace? I don't think so. But Mary Weiss is out and about on her own.

The Jaynettes? That would be odd.

Irma Thomas... would be great.

Barbara Lynn. What are the odds on her having a myspace profile? Slim, Jim. But have you watched her on YouTube? So cool, so classy.

[That Was Jonathan E. Then]

And I asked Charlie and he was gracious enough to approve my friendship request.

The thing that is at least somewhat fascinating about MySpace is that it's a bit like shouting in a bucket (as Kevin Ayres would have it in his famous blues song). The conversation is better here. On MySpace it's basically all about tagging each other's pages with what are usually fatuous comments and announcing as loudly as possible what you're up to with no real and meaningful back-and-forth exchange of ideas (unlike here when all is purring along). And I am simply amazed at the number of twenty-something women who want to have sex with fifty-something married men. I've noticed that some of them, even with different names and photographs of their posteriors, have exactly the same text describing their desires. Interesting to say something fatuous.

[Des]

I've signed up as well!

It would be great if I could get Charlie and fellow forumites to be a friend or even just a nodding aquaintance.