Are you willing to give MySpace a second chance?

Social media has become an essential part of people's lives of all generations. These sites are garnering attention and have grown to the point where they have to be embraced, not ignored. However, many social media websites do not make it. Remember MySpace? MySpace, originally created so people could share music, quickly gained users of all ages just looking to communicate with one another. In middle school MySpace was all the rave, although I didn't have one, majority of my friends did. Shortly after MySpace caught on with my friends, Facebook emerged, creating even more of an impact and eventually led to the demise of MySpace as a social media tool.

MySpace is coming out with a new design and concept described as a "social entertainment destination." Mashable Co-Editor wrote a great article on the "new" MySpace. MySpace is only trying to target the younger generation that they believe love entertainment and want to share it with others. Topic Pages (which I believe are much like fan pages on Facebook) are being created to help followers keep up with their favorite television shows or celebrities. MySpace is trying to create more of a connection between users. To which I ask, isn't that why people use social media, to feel connected? Promoting the new MySpace like that can be very interesting, but the fact that they are only targeting it towards a younger audience I find puzzling. When their original audience, who were loyal until something bigger and better came along, is now older, why not try to regain their love?

I do wonder if the new MySpace will catch on, or if Facebook and Twitter have become monopolies pushing out other social media types. But like MySpace in the past, will Facebook and Twitter eventually come to an end? Obviously they have shown a little more staying power thus far, but people have a short attention span these days. Will they grow out of Facebook and Twitter like they did with MySpace?

I guess only time will tell...

http://mashable.com/2010/10/29/on-myspaces-new-strategy/

-Elyssa Nemetsky