Facebook vs. MySpace

The two biggest social networking sites in the world; combined, the total accounts on both MySpace and Facebook equal roughly the entire population of the United States. They are both enormously popular, and both are growing, though Facebook is growing at a significantly faster pace. As a user of both social networking sites, I decided to take a hard look at both and decide which is better. I prefer Facebook over MySpace, and I am sure you will see why in the reasons below.

First off, starting off on Facebook is easier. With MySpace, new users are thrown into unfamiliar territory right away, and for the casual Internet user, this can be a little confusing. Facebook has everything clear-cut and gives the user helpful hints and tips. Then there’s organization. MySpace appears to be in a permanent state of complete disarray, with random users(often bots from porn sites) sending friend requests to people they don’t even know. In addition, MySpace pages often slow down your browser, take forever to load, and stretch out your screen needlessly. With Facebook, everything is set in the same format, but there are many other options to customize your page with. Also, the news feed from Facebook is a good add, and was popular enough that MySpace recently picked it up and added it to their site. One thing I will concede to MySpace, however, is the bulletin feature; Facebook really doesn’t have anything similar, and on MySpace they are very useful to communicate with all of your friends. The only downside are all the chain bulletins, which bring us to our next subject…

The spam. MySpace is riddled with it. I’m sure when MySpace started out, it didn’t have that much spam. But through bulletins and comments, spam and chain letters are inescapable. It may seem like a small inconvenience, and really,  it is tolerable-but after a while, it just becomes old. The constant spam is one of the things that turned be towards Facebook. The only constant spam there is through the Super Wall and Fun Wall applications, and its not like you are forced to add either of those to your profile; there are only a few applications that a new Facebook comes with, and those can be hidden from your profile. The rest is up to the user, what they want to add and what they don’t.

But for all of its flaws, MySpace does have its good points; there aren’t the constant invitations for applications like on Facebook, and to be fair, MySpace was pioneering a new frontier in the Internet, and a few mistakes are likely to be made. However, Facebook is superior to MySpace in nearly every aspect; its much easier to find friends on Facebook, there’s little annoying spam, communication is easier, and everything in general just seems more organized. Overall, Facebook is the better social networking site.

This is Kolametal, signing off.