Comparison to MySpace and other SNS

How do you use Facebook as a communication medium? How do you personally use (messaging/wall/status/chat)? How does Facebook compare to other ways of communicating? Is Facebook an efficient way of communicating?

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Respondent 1

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J: Okay, so now moving on to the Facebook stuff, did – I guess first question—was there a MySpace before it?

I: No, I did not have a MySpace page, people tried to get me into it, actually I had a friend make me one and I did not use it, so I don’t know if it’s still there, but [laugh] so yeah I was never in to that stuff.

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Respondent 4

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J: Yeah I was gonna say, did you have MySpace before it then?

I:yeah I had a MySpace in high school and I didn’t have either senior year, but I wanted to wait until I left high school so my Facebook would say Illinois, not, ya know, the high school one. And I remember getting it like the day or 2 days after I graduated because I really wanted one, but, I just didn’t wanna have a high school one.

J:haha, well you could’ve, I mean, you can do it as soon as you get the email for your college, right?

I:yeah, I guess so.

J: which in theory came, if it was U of I came before your graduation day you just didn’t you wanted to think about it as the cut off or something?

I:I really don’t know, I guess when I was still in high school, I felt like I wasn’t ready to meet people. I wanted, I wanted to keep ‘em separate.

J:Ok, so was it a rite of passage thing?

I:yeah.

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Respondent 5

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J: What were the differences between MySpace and Facebook?

I:Okay, well, MySpace, I think the reason why some people like MySpace better is because you can be more creative with it, like you can make different backgrounds and wall papers and stuff like that.  And MySpace, since it was easier to log on to MySpace than Facebook at that time there’d be more creepy people and you know, like sexual predators I guess. And then Facebook you don’t really hear about that, I guess.

J:Did you hear more about MySpace sexual predators back during the beginning or now?

I:I think still now there’s not really issues—I’ve never heard of anyone having a sexual predator on Facebook, I guess they could now, anyone can join.

J:Do you use MySpace still?

I:I use MySpace still, when I got the Facebook, and eventually no one really went on MySpace from my town.

J: So people went off to college and stopped?

I:Yeah, it kind of just lost its splendor, I guess.  So I deleted my MySpace I think last summer because every time I went on it nothing new happened.

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J: Does it take management to keep things up?

I:Yeah, yeah it really does. If you add an application it will go on your profile, but if you don’t want it on your profile you have to ‘x’ it out and delete it.

J:What about the profile in general?

I:Eh, it’s simple, simpler than MySpace I think.  Because I know MySpace people had to like make codes and different things. 

J:Most MySpace pages use templates, they can be downloaded.

I:And someone told me that MySpace now has—like has you can create your own, on MySpace.  I never had that but.

J:MySpace now has applications and the customization has changed.

I:Yeah that’s cool, but I like Facebook because everyone’s Facebook looks pretty much the same, unless they have applications.

J: So you like the uniformity and think it makes it easier to figure out?

I:Yes.

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Respondent 6

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J: Alright, so what then got you into Facebook?  Was there any MySpace before it?

I:No, I had a Xanga for a little bit, I was way too lazy to update it.  I eventually got Facebook because I realized everyone uses it for college.  So I got it somewhere around the middle of my senior year, so I could prepare for it.

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J: How do you think Facbeook compares to other social network services, like say Xanga?

I:To be honest I just saw Xanga as people writing down their feelings in entries and people would look if they want—they could even get the newsfeeds, journals, through email.  I guess those were really the only two I ever had, and I really only had a brief time with Xanga, and I didn’t really use it very much, so I’m not really sure how fully I can answer that question.

J:That’s okay. It’s based on what you know, so…

I:I think there’s a lot more information available on Facebook vs. things like Xanga, last time I checked.

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Respondent 7

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You mentioned MySpace, what was that like?  How did it compare? How do you remember it being?

I:MySpace is good, it’s still good now.  Back then—it used to be Tag actually, and then MySpace was like Sophomore year, I thought it was complicated and first too, a lot of my friends had it, some of my friends did, but a lot of us didn’t. It was a variation kind of, once I signed up for that and got used to it and learned how to use it, it was pretty addictive and the school like blocked all of those type of sites, we always tried to get proxies to get on MySpace, especially in the libraries and stuff, and people always found ways to get on the websites and stuff and everybody wrote it down and we always found a way to get around it.

J:What’d you guys do on MySpace?

I:Put pictures up, comments, umb, send messages, yeah those were the main stuff, change you background, background was always important, oh your song, your profile song, changing your headline, like on your page.

J:How does it compare to Facebook, exactly?  Was it pretty different or pretty simple? 

I:I think they’re pretty different actually.  Because Facebook you can tell it’s a more mature sophisticated look, it’s really simple, there’s no like extra oh backgrounds and all these colors, it’s just like white and blue, and I kind of like Facebook because they have the wall-to-wall and like MySpace doesn’t and like people comment you and it’s been a while and you don’t remember what they said you’ll be like “uh…”  but at least with Facebook you can go to Wall-to-Wall and read your whole conversation and remind yourself.
I don’t know, but when I started using Facebook it was really complicated.  Uploading photos, how to do regular stuff on there, everything was so different, I didn’t used to get on there until I came down here and I saw that everybody was on Facebook and I was like “Facebook is garbage it’s not even all that.” Now it’s like I think MySpace is garbage, it’s so funny, I quickly switched now I don’t really get on MySpace, everybody is on Facebook, like everybody.  They put events on there.

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Respondent 8

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J: Were you a member of MySpace before?

I:No.

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Respondent 9

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J: Alright, cool.  So fast forwarding to today.  Social networking stuff.  Did you join MySpace back in high school?

I:No

J:Any specific reason?

I:I saw other people do it, it looked kinda stupid.

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Respondent 10

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Did you have any other social networking stuff before that? Like MySpace?

I:I did MySpace, I didn’t really like it.  I didn’t check it very often.  I had it for like a year before I got Facebook. I still have MySpace, but I forgot the password, so it’s frozen in time, and I can’t change anything.

J:You think that’ll be a problem later?

I:Maybe I don’t know.  I wonder if they delete them. Maybe they delete them if you don’t go on for a while.  Like over like a year don’t you think they’d probably delete it?

J:I don’t know.  I kind of doubt it actually.  Unless you specifically ask for it.

I:Oh, that’s creepy.

J: So you didn’t like it as much?

I:MySpace?

J:Yeah, how does it compare?

I:Well it had a bunch of viruses, it had people send you messages, but it wasn’t them sending it, it was like “You should buy this cell phone” was the message, so you knew it wasn’t them so all of the messages you were getting were just like people who got viruses from their MySpace. And you could only put like 5 pictures—I mean you could put a lot, but most people would only put 5 or 10.  There just really wasn’t much to see.

J:Did you feel like it was a coming of age thing?  MySpace for high school, Facebook for college?

I:Maybe, that does make sense, but I don’t know, because now high schoolers just have Facebook.  Like everyone from my high school is friending me, like sophomores, juniors, they all have Facebook.  So I think it might have been an original thing and then when Facebook came out everyone realized it was better.

J:Who do you think is on MySpace now?

I:Middle schoolers.