Social Media Sites That Are No Longer With Us
MARGAUX: Friendster, MySpace. We were all so innocent then. We didn’t know the thrill of adding a minor celebrity to our Top 8 would be surpassed by actually being able to talk to them (and later, learn far too much about them, all the time). And if we thought an ad for Secret deodorant slowing down Hillary Duff’s music page was a pain in the ass, wait till everyone starts going on The Bachelor for the wrongest reason of them all, INSTAGRAM SPON CON.
It’s easy to be nostalgic for a time when being Online was all D&D chat rooms and blingy Geocities sites built by bored teens in the suburbs, but that version now only exists in our (hive) mind. Social media was always tinged with the sense of, you take the good with the bad, mix up and then you have…Twitter, apparently. I don’t know what kind of internet we thought we’re promised when Tom from MySpace was auto-added to our friend list, but it is pretty close to what The Chappelle Show predicted.
What’s Tom Up To?
It’s kinda funny to think about the alternate universe where Mark Zuckerberg did sell FaceBook to MySpace, and instead of discovering his passion for selling off user information to Russia, he unlocked a passion for photography, being rich as hell, and minding his own business while traveling the world. Cause that’s exactly what Tom from Myspace is doing. It’s not like he’s hard to find, he’s @myspacetom on Instagram.
Who among us wouldn’t want to retire at 38 with millions of dollars instead being embroiled in senate hearings and to have history generally look back on us unfavorably?
Relics of MySpace
Like we talked about in the episode, the biggest draw of MySpace was the music. It gave us some great artists like Lily Allen and Teagan and Sara, introduced us to the genre of screamo with bands like Thrice, Brit rock bands like Foals, and even recent Grammy award winner, Tyler the Creator, was on there. So many bands attribute their start to MySpace that, thanks to the unbeatable combination of FaceBook Pages and the WayBack Machine, we’ve been given the gift of: Relics of MySpace Music.
In The Arms of an Angel
Friendster, what’s left of MySpace and Tumblr, not everyone makes it (as I was rudely told in film school), so let’s pour one out for the other homies that are not thriving in 2020.
Orkut — Google’s answer to social media, and was big in Brazil in 2008
StumbleUpon — MEMBER??? This was supposed to be the new Tumblr and very quickly was not
Flixster — Before Film Twitter, you could get into arguments with strangers about The Coen Brothers filmography here!
Friends Reunited — Had not even heard of her, but out of context it sounds like something coming to HBO Max
Fair and Balanced
It is wild that Oh No They Didn’t, Livejournal’s most famous offshoot, started by three teens, is still going as strong as it is. And, personally, in a time when it’s difficult to find a news source that isn’t tinged with some sort of bias, ONTD has been a safe space. ONTD is simply doing what the other girls aren’t . I know it sounds strange that what was is ostensibly a “gossip” site could actually be much more, but if you gave it a chance, you’d understand why I read ONTD every morning and not Apple News. We’ve got news from around the world (not just U.S.), breaking entertainment news, and sure there is still celeb gossip (their tagline is “Celebrities are disposable. Gossip is priceless”…which, no argument here), but they even throw a recap of 90 Day Fiancé or The Bachelor in there too. It’s like NPR meets Daily Mail, but grammatically correct and funny. They even put spoiler cuts for shows if you’re not caught up. Considerate about spilling tea? Yes, please, may I have some more?!
Their top five headlines are always a perfect cross section of all my interests, look:
ONTD might not get as much circulation as say the New York Times, but like MySpace of yore, if ONTD is talking about you, you’re doing something right (hopefully).
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