What is Myspace?
Self Expression
It has become more and more difficult to express yourself as an individual in this day and age. Public hang outs have disappeared while malls and 7/11s are banning people from loitering. Meanwhile, TV is showing how cool "some" people are, and on MTV, the…"They live, you watch." scenario is becoming a disturbing thought to people who's own lives are pretty interesting.
Myspace comes in as a social/private place that lets all kinds of people know who you are. At the heart of MySpace are profiles that are linked to your friends in the system. Myspace profiles are personalized to show an individual's interests, moods and tastes. Music, photos and videos help users make their MySpace profile unique.
Gadgets
There are all kinds of gadgets and tools to pimp out your space, making it completely your own, and if you know HTML, you can do it yourself.
The friend network helps people to link to their friends and zoom around the Myspace network through these profiles. An individual's "Top 8" friends are on the front page of their profile; all of the rest appear on a separate page. Bands, movie stars, and artists have profiles on MySpace and fans can friend them as well. People can comment on each others' profiles or photos that are usually displayed publicly.
Music
More than 240,000 artists of every kind, from unsigned amateurs to international rock stars are using MySpace as a way to find and connect with their fans. And band members often respond to fans, creating a real dialogue between artists and their followers.
For fans, MySpace allows them to keep up-to-date on bands in an intimate way. Fans that have declared an allegiance, who are known as "buddies," can leave comments on a band's site, letting them know what they think of their music or how they performed at their last show.
Its also possible to track down other people who like the music you like, even people in your area by searching for a local band. Like in New Orleans, I was able to find all kinds of lost friends after the hurricane, by looking at the friend lists of some of the little local bands I knew there.
Age limits
At the start Myspace was ony for those 18 years and older, and public. Over time, the age limit dropped to 16 and then, later, to 14. The youngest MySpace users are given the option to make their profiles visible only to friends and they do not appear in machine generated searches.
The site is popular because it's free and it's easy to include friends, who can keep in touch by sharing messages, photos, videos and personality surveys.
AIM: Nitronetuk 
