Face’ to ‘Space
To sign up for either site is very simple. With Facebook, it asks for a full name and if in high school, college, at a company, or none, this is asked to determine which network to join. Networks are used as a safety feature so only people in the same network can see each other’s profiles, but friends can as well. It also wants an email address, new password, birth date, and to decipher random text in a box, as a safety feature. After completing these steps, a new Facebook account has been set up. For MySpace the same questions are asked, with the addition of country, zip code, and gender. MySpace does not have networks, but it can be set so only friends can view the profile, instead of any user. The simplicity of signing up may be one of the reasons each site has many millions of users.
With having tons and tons of users, privacy is a huge issue for both sites. Facebook seems more secure to me than MySpace. With Facebook I like the fact that no one outside of my network or friends, people that are added to “My Friends” by the user, can see my profile. There are extensive steps that can be taken to ensure security, such as blocking people, setting it so specific people can only see certain information, and being able to reject people that try to become friends if they are unwanted. Even though MySpace has most of the same privacy components as Facebook, I don’t feel as safe on it. Since there are more people using MySpace, it seems like that means only a larger number of corrupted people can try to get a hold of my information.
It is obvious that people are very fond of the concept of both sites. The main idea behind Facebook was to have a place where classmates, friends, or acquaintances can find each other and stay connected. It was created for college students and has branched out from being strictly on college campuses to now anyone, even without a school, job, or network, can join. This is one of the reasons I prefer Facebook; it is geared more towards younger people. On the other hand, MySpace is used for the same purpose of keeping people in contact, but anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can use it. This might be why MySpace has more people using it, since before Facebook was only accessible to people in college or high school. Whatever the case, both of these sites have helped friends maintain friendship over distance, people meet new friends, or just staying up to date on the latest happenings with people seen daily.
Facebook has a set profile look everyone has, and there aren’t backgrounds to download or add; it’s just regular, plain theme. Since everyone’s profiles are the same, it makes it easy to be able to know where or what certain items are. I find the navigation and look of Facebook to be very easy to maneuver around. Also, with Facebook, the name used is the full name provided when signing up. There isn’t a “screen name” used and it can’t be changed to lyrics, quotes, or anything, it’s just a person’s first, middle if wanted, and last names. When viewing MySpace profiles they are each unique because backgrounds can be downloaded and add-ons, such as surveys, quizzes, and “about me’s”, are optional. With the uniqueness of each profile, there is a drawback in it makes it more difficult to find things or know what each means when clicking on it.
Another similarity between Facebook and MySpace is some of their special features. For Facebook on a profile there is a “wall”. This is a place for friends to publicly post a “hello”, inside joke, quote, or anything they want to. MySpace has the same concept, only it is just called a comment box, and people post comments, which are really the same things as posts. Facebook and MySpace call the people each user adds “friends”. There are groups that can be joined on each site. These groups may be serious topics, just for fun, totally pointless, or just a place for people with the same idea to congregate. On Facebook there is a place for users to write “notes”, these are called “blogs” on MySpace. These are used for people to write anything they want, and it is open to everyone that can see their profile on Facebook. On MySpace blogs can be set so only certain people may read them.
Facebook and MySpace have become huge, thanks to the millions of users that have shown they really enjoy the concept, features, and ease of both. These sites are very much similar, but have their own unique touches to differentiate between the two. With Facebook and MySpace being so similar, the choice of which to use, or have both, is just a personal preference of Face’ or ‘Space.
