Is social all about cool? (Or why teens switch from MySpace)

In other words, things stop being cool for good reasons. Thanks for pointing this out, I was getting frustrated with the “fickle kids!” take on why MySpace is losing steam among teenagers. It’s weird to see companies that self-consciously use the language of flocks, flows, and diffusion to explain their success suddenly complain about fickleness the flock has moved on.

In contrast, my musician friends still use MySpace heavily and happily.

Michal, yes, that’s the point. It’s easy to imagine teenagers as a pack of wildebeests on a grassy plain, simply running with wild abandon.

I think this article actually shows that there is a depth to this…maybe cool is a big part of it but there’s more going on here than what’s momentarily in or out socially.

It would seem to me that fickleness is a symptom not a cause. If a company has used this as a reason to explain a drop in usage then is goes to show how little they understand their customers.

Most teenagers have a desire to become independent, usually manfested as doing the opposite of what an authoritive figure asks.

Fox have made some fundamental mistakes such as the recent ban on uploading any copyright music (presumably a cross check on gracenotes) Its almost as if Fox wants to drive teenagers away.

That’s a good way to put it, Pauric. A symptom and not a cause. Too often it’s treated as a cause, without any real digging into why people make the decisions they do.

The teenage market more than any other is hugely driven by 1. peer pressure and 2. perception. These things can change on a dime. Last year, Roxy jeans were hip, this year it’s Lucky jeans, (or whatever). I think the mistake people make though is to equate social networks with brands such as jeans. There are some significant differences. Social networks are more like virtual hang-outs. You go there because that’s where your friends are. MySpace just happens to be where everyone is. This will probably last a while - certainly long enough for companies to leverage some marketing! Of course, MySpace use drops off considerably once teens go to college… The biggest problem with MySpace though is that like any online community, you can’t trust it. Unless you know the people personally you have to always remember that they may not be what they represent themselves as (in significant fundamental ways). So you stick with who you know - sort of.

Large corporations need to have reliable and consistent revenue streams. Fox has cooked its golden goose by in part imposing the wrong restrictions on myspace with an aim to increase monetisation. Its not a stretch to see that social networks have relatively short organic shelf lives. Cultivating a social network takes a much defter hand than running a news organisation.

Designers have had trouble understanding the popularity of myspace, I think an analogy with our level of social networking might help here.

Like a good bar or restaurant, its all about atmosphere. You can design a good ambience, provide excellent content in comfortable settings but once you start telling your customers they’re not allowed bring their own favourite wine (and pay a cork fee) or that they will allow street traders in to peddle goods to you.. etc etc.. you’ve blown it.

Accept that your network wont be popular forever, let it grow organically and it will live a happier longer life.

On ‘MySpace use drops off considerably once teens go to college’ there is no reason for this to be so.

1)last time I checked, people were still producing more people.
2)Facebook proves that social network usage exists in college.

My “out of context” quote of the day is:

It’s easy to imagine teenagers as a pack of wildebeests on a grassy plain, simply running with wild abandon.

If people leave myspace, its less about what’s cool and more about functionality. At one point, Community Connect was the kind of minority-interest social websites, owning Asian Avenue, Blackplanet and Migente. Each site was great in that you were able to interact with people of similar cultural backgrounds, and in the case of AA and MG, languages. But over time each site had its fair share of errors, and its search functions were a joke. By the time they fixed everything, it was too little too late. It even appeared as though they bumped the expanded the time which shows the number of users online to cover up the dwindling number of visits once Myspace took off. Myspace is functional, relatively speaking its search features blew away anything Community Connect had. Cool is cool, Myspace is king because of how easy it is to find people.