Friday, January 19, 2007

Should I stay or should I go?

A new column in TechNewsWorld states that MySpace is here to stay because it has critical mass of people and therefore will not lose popularity, as people do not want to but forth the effort to rebuild their profiles and network of friends if they migrate to a new social networking site.

However, others have argued (danah boyd amongst them) almost the exact opposite: that teens don't really mind starting over and don't have much stake in their online identities should they disappear or migrate. Take, for example, the former popularity of Friendster which is now a mere shadow of itself.

Using this POV, it would follow that teens WILL pick up and leave MySpace and it's new and impending rules and restrictions to go somewhere else less regulated and moderated. And when that new space is dominated by adults, the young will pick up and move again. And again.

A never-ending cycle of regulation futility.

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