MySpace may wane, but DSN will not

30th October 2006

posted in socialnetworking |

Today’s Washington Post article “In Teens’ Web World, MySpace Is So Last Year” suggests that useage of MySpace may be declining and shifting to other sites like Facebook. Based on the conversations I continue to have with students and parents, I don’t think this shift is huge yet– but I could be wrong.

Whether or not the digital social networking (DSN) website de-jure changes, I think we can say with certainty that the phenomenon of DSN is here to stay. That was one of the key messages of my presentation on “safe digital social networking” in Plano yesterday. (an mp3 version is available along with session links.) This view is supported on page two of the Washington Post article:

Young audiences search for innovative and new features. They’re constantly looking for new ways to communicate and share content they find or create, and because of that group mentality, friends shift from service to service in blocs.

One of the things I dislike most about MySpace are the advertisements. I suppose ads will be unavoidable in most of these free environments that are open to anyone, but it would be nice if next-gen DSN sites will intentionally host less explicit advertisements.

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