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Youths No Longer Predominant on MySpace
mikesd81 writes "The Associated Press is reporting on the rapid aging of MySpace. More than half of MySpace's users are now 35 or older. From the article: 'Just a year ago, teens under 18 made up about 25 percent of MySpace, the popular online hangout run by News Corp. That's now down to 12 percent in the comScore analysis released Thursday. By contrast, the 35-54 group at MySpace grew to 41 percent in August, from 32 percent a year earlier ... The study was based on comScore's regular panels for measuring Internet audiences, rather than MySpace's registration information, where users often lie about their age.'"
Between that and movies (myspace.com/moviename), it's pretty amazing to see how that service has become mainstreamed and co-opted by the adult/business world.
The CB App. What's your 20?
So, let me see if I understand the way this thread is running:
Kid's hanging out of MySpace are just being kids, but middle aged adults are predetors and/or lying about their age? is that about right?
What is this, the modern interpretation of "never trust anyone over 30 years old"? Some us "old timers" still enjoy meeting new people from time to time.
When I initially saw the article I thought, "cool, people my age, maybe I'll set up an account". This thread has been kinda depressing.
Maybe....just maybe...the notion of networking with people across the internet is becoming a more mainstream idea. This is kind of reminiscent of an old gopher site called "occ" which I used to use for job hunting. Nowadays, it's a web site called "Monster", and one of serveral such sites. Like many others, I maintain an online resume as a matter of course.
It could be that social networking sites are evolving to the same level.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Huh? Excuse me? Since where did 35+ become synonimous with paedophile?
It may be hard to comprehend for someone whose world revolves around a computer in a basement, but most humans are _social_ beings. Yes, I know, mind boggles. There are plenty of reasons for people, even aged 35+, to interact with other people in a real or virtual community, that _don't_ involve looking for 13 year olds to fuck. Like, you know, interacting with other 35+ people.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
It's a fact: If you want your child to stay away from something, simply embrace it. Don't want them listening to rap, tell them you and all your friends love that new CD. Don't like the way they wear their clothes? Call them "G" and tell them they need to wear their pants down lower. Don't want them on MySpace? Tell them everyone at the office is doing it and you signed up, too. Ask them to be in your "family photo" to go ON MySpace.
Nothing freaks out a kid like thinking they might agree with their parents about what is cool.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Well, I think its quite possible that the raw uglyness of Myspace pages caught up with people.
I think I've been to myspace maybe half a dozen times in total. I find the layout of most pages visually offensive. Useless sensory overload.
Teens look for a community of their own. They find one, build it, make it good, then the corporations move in to make money off of it. That lasts for a while, then the corporations eventually destroy it. Good example: Rap. I could come up with more.
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I agree with the parent, but the idea of MySpace being a tool and not just the latest teen social fad goes much bigger than just being a band advertisement. Now we are seeing movies and TV shows using MySpace for marketing purposes as well. And these are not independent movies or public access shows either, these are Hollywood blockbusters and network television shows. Now I don't have a MySpace account and I am not familiar with their usage agreement (if there is one), but if I understand this correctly, these movies, bands, tv shows all have FREE webspace that is practically pre-designed (so very little effort goes into the creation) and they have a vast network of people to advertise to and also measure things like buzz and hype associated with the product. How soon until we start seeing other consumer products with their own MySpace pages? Anyone else want to be Microsoft Windows Vista's "friend"?
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
Except your method just makes you into a looser and an ass in your childs' eyes.
Dont listen to this guy, your kids will see right through it. He is right in one respect though - teens want their own area in which to interact. You keep following them to all their places, whether online or in real life, and they'll keep looking for new places.
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Interesting. It seems to me that YouTube is already between #3 and #4. Where are the cool kids now?
I also wonder how many of those older my-spacers are the parents of the teenagers with accounts used basically to spy on their kids.I'm pretty sure the large number of teanie boppers that register as 99 years old to avoid stalkers, creeps, and weirdos may have thrown the statistics off just a little bit.
Remember, girls, if you try to project a highly sexual image to the world, that only teenaged boys will look and be interested. Anybody over 20 who's attention you catch is a "stalker, creep, and weirdo".
This idea's pretty weird, yet millions of kids seem to believe it ...
Except in this case there is nothing about MySpace that says "kids only site". We're not talking about adults on some kindergarten's "I like ponies" chatroom (though even there they might have legitimate reasons to be, like making sure what their own kid could see there), we're talking about adults on a site that always had adult profiles too. It was never marketted as a teen-only site, it never had any mention of being a teen-only site, etc. So exactly _what_ warning signs would an adult have to tell them "it's a kid only place, they'll look funny at you if you go there"?
All you have there is some "omg, there are pedos on MySpace" media scare (and even there it's been only a couple of cases), and from there a bunch of people basically seem to extrapolate that everyone else there must be one. Which is a classic extrapolation fallacy, of the kind that goes "cats are mammals, hence all mammals are cats."
Or to put it otherwise, it's as illogical as reading that there was a rape in the central park, and from there assuming that every single male in the central park must be a rapist looking for a victim. Or that there are fraudsters on Ebay, hence everyone using Ebay must be looking for someone to scam. Etc.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.