Social media has revolutionized the way in which we perceive the world today. Though it cannot substitute reality, it has constantly improved the essence of connectivity. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, MySpace, etc., have been catering to the masses for a long time now. Here’s everything you need to know about the difference between Facebook and MySpace.
Facebook vs MySpace
The main difference between Facebook and MySpace is that while Facebook is a platform that prioritizes connectivity and communication over any other thing, MySpace has developed into a platform with blog-like features, where individuals create their profiles with details such as hobbies, photographs, music preferences, movie choices, etc. They can also connect with people with similar tastes and likings.
Facebook was created to enable its users to connect, make friends and stay in touch. The whole idea was to create a platform that made it easier to make friends from all around the world. Moreover, it also provides features for the users to display and discover their interests as well.
MySpace, as the name suggests, is a user-oriented platform. It is somewhat similar to a blog, through which one can maintain their profiles by adding their interests and likings. It also provides chatting features, apart from sharing music and videos. It became a place for new and aspiring artists to share their music and get a public response.
Comparison Table Between Facebook and MySpace
| Parameters of Comparison | MySpace | |
| Founded by | It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends from Harvard University, in 2004. | It was launched founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, in 2003. |
| User Base | It is accessible to all but generally attracts an adult and mature audience. | Its user base was mostly teenagers. |
| Headquarters | Its headquarter is located at Menlo Park, California, United States. | Its headquarter is located in Beverly Hills, California, United States. |
| Messaging Features | On Facebook, messages can be sent to anyone and any group. | MySpace does not have individual messaging features. The whole friend list has to be contacted. |
| Languages | Facebook is available and supports more than 110 languages of the world. | MySpace is available in around 15 languages. |
What is Facebook?
Facebook has brought the social media revolution and potentially was the beginning of the social media generation we are living in. It was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow Harvard students, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
Facebook was initially registered as a company with the name ‘Facebook, Inc.,’ which has now been named as ‘Meta Platforms, Inc.’ It owns other social media platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp as well. There are around 3.5 billion users of these Facebook products around the world, with around 1.9 billion monthly active users.
Its headquarters is situated at Menlo Park, California, United States. Facebook has many features which make it more than just a communication platform. It allows users to join groups and communities of various interests, provides reminders for important events, and can also be a marketplace for small and large businesses.
The user’s timeline showcases all the posts, shares, and activities of the user. The Facebook newsfeed provides the users with all posts from friends and liked pages. One can share their thoughts, feelings, mood, activities, etc., on their timeline. Other options include liking, commenting, and sharing posts of friends.
However, Facebook is even criticized for sharing false information, promoting hate speech, invading privacy, and inducing stress, anger, and anxiety among the users.
What is MySpace?
MySpace was created by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe in 2003. Its headquarter is located in Beverly Hills, California, United States. It has a graphic interface and allows its users to create their profiles on which they share their details, photographs, likings, interests, preferences, etc. In 2011, Justin Timberlake bought the rights of MySpace for around 35 million dollars.
It became a prime platform for sharing music and videos and opened its own record label in partnership with YouTube. Apart from this, it also has chatting features. However, with the advent of Facebook, it started to lose users.
Still, according to 2016 data, it has around 15 million monthly users. It is completely free and accessible only with an email address, just like Facebook.MySpace generally is used to broadcast these interests, but one can also restrict this activity and create a private account just for friends.
Although it had a basic HTML interface, it had many features such as adding blogs, bulletins, polls, forums, etc. It earns money from video ads, referral marketing, and banner advertisement. It enabled people to portray themselves the way they wanted to, in front of the world.
Main Differences Between Facebook and MySpace
- Facebook is generally used by college students and has a more mature or grown-up user base. MySpace, in its prime, was mostly used by teenagers or by the working class.
- As of now, Facebook facilitates all types of content such as pictures, video, music, advertisement, audio, short video, stories, etc. MySpace mainly focused on music and videos.
- The privacy features of Facebook are becoming better with time, and it provides features for both individual and general restriction of their profile from others. MySpace, on the other hand, does not have well-built privacy features and is prone to spam.
- Facebook has provided features of both audio and video calls with friends directly from their platform. MySpace does not provide calling features.
- MySpace allows its users to change their profile colors and add flash applications to their pages. Facebook has no such features, and it is more textual rather than graphic.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said both Facebook and MySpace are very different from each other. However, they were built on similar ideas and values. It can be said that both of them have upgraded the essence of social networking and have changed the world on so many levels.
It can be said that Facebook has overtaken MySpace by a fair margin and has more unique users than the latter because of better features. Both these platforms have a few shortcomings as well, like not being able to safeguard user data and promoting feelings of anger, shame, jealousy, hatred, etc., among its users. There is still a lot to be done to make the internet a better place.
References
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886911005149
- https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/wjpl19§ion=46