Here's a fun Friday riddle: How do you make an already
puerile, vapid social networking site even more puerile and vapid?
Answer: You add celebrities.
Earlier this month, MySpace launched MySpace Celebrity, or as
it obnoxiously terms it in its press release, "Hollywood's
new home page." MySpace Celebrity is dedicated to the entertainment
world, serving as another platform that fosters gossip, multimedia, and news
surrounding the limelit lives of the dysfunctional celebs.
An example of what you'll currently find on the home page (which is, by the way, much snazzier looking than the one devised for us in the lowly average citizen crowd) is a celebrity blog penned by none other than our favorite author Paris Hilton -- detailing what a greaaaat new year she's having so far. (Her "current mood" today is excited as opposed to perpetually confused.) Well. I suppose I can cross "worrying about Paris Hilton's January" off my list of things to do today. Thanks, MySpace.
While many users, I'm sure, are ecstatic to have finally
centralized all their favorite aspects of one-dimensionality to a singular spot
online, I think this is a blatantly desperate attempt by MySpace to
generate cheap traffic and stay ahead of the likes of Facebook which, while
still far behind in numbers, is increasing its userbase at a faster pace.
MySpace was respectable when its purpose was to level the playing field for new talent, but by presenting itself as yet another platform that promotes this
pathetic obsession with celebrity life and the desire of many to live vicariously
through some rich, scantily-clad stranger's every bong hit, MySpace has
declared to its audience that it's shifted its focus from rallying a community behind new artists to winning a popularity contest. It has also refocused the role of its users from interactive to reactive, thus tossing out the whole social networking community thing and recasting the site as a haven for desperate groupies.
According to the press release, "MySpace Celebrity provides fans the
opportunity to become friends with celebrities, send them messages, post
comments to profile pages and share celebrity videos." So. In non-press release terms, MySpace Celebrity gives users the opportunity to waste their lives away, declaring their unrequited love via MySpace to a celebrity's 20-something PR rep.
But, then again, perhaps I'm being too harsh. As suggested on CNET,
MySpace Celebrity allows us to officially overcome a previously grave dilemma: the inability
to decipher between real celebrity MySpace pages and (dare I say it...) fake celebrity MySpace pages. Well... Rejoice! The algorithm has been devised! We will suffer from friendships with faux celebrities no more! Next up, curing Cancer!
Now, I need to truly take a look at myspace. All I have ever seen it as, is a place people put mindless information on. Students are contantly on it, and what they have on it is offensive. Some of them have children as young as 10 on the site, personally I feel they are tto young, but thats just me. Anyway I need to look for its goodside because as of now, I do not see one, and it has become so popular with many colleges.
when I discovered that one of my friends had joined the "Celebrity Accounts on Facebook" group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2423516202) the other day. It seems that we are protected on Facebook by a loyal team of 'vigilantes' who will act upon any request to see if a particular page is a real or fake celebrity page... Please note:
"Our group is dedicated to locating celebrities that have accounts on Facebook. Our wonderful group of carefully selected individuals are focused on finding accounts, and categorizing them into specific groups labeled below. We also expose, and report to a higher authority, the people who are "idolizing" and acting like a true celebrity. Our hard work and dedication has made our group the way it is now. We just ask that you act appropriately and treat other members, administrators, and officers with dignity and respect. Lastly, please keep your requests down to a maximum of three a day, to ensure we get to everyone's requests!"
What made me laugh even more was the 'personal note' from the group founder:
"The Real/Fake Group headed up by Marissa Williams has had their entire list deleted (& discredited for being copied from our group) at least for now, but we would have to take them to court to keep it down all together. We respect our members staying with the original group, and now that we are the ONLY one remaining, we hope to provide everything you've been looking for. :)"
Oh. My. Gawd.
Nevertheless, I do have a nice warm feeling inside to know that I am protected from the Facebook bandits who go around posing as celebrities. I shall scuttle off to tell the good news to my friend, Mr Pitt... whose first name just happens to be Brad.
The sad part is that as we are here arguing that it's the
worst thing ever, and that it will completely misses what users want. There are
thousands of people looking up what each of those celebrities are doing - and I
bet most of them are not using it to write blogs making fun of them hehe.
Hey Juliana thanks for the kudos on my pithy rant! I agree with you that there's still good talent to be found on MySpace, and the opportunity is definitely still available to newbies starting out. It's just that that modest, well-respected side of MySpace has now been muddled with the typical mindless array of celebrity gossip that has polluted every other media portal. To me, that's unfortunate. But anyway, here's hoping Paris enjoys February as much as she's enjoyed January!!! :)
I agree that the degree of celebrity ridiculousness has just jumped up a notch! It's easy to criticize and I must applaud you for your pithy rant: "yet another platform that promotes this pathetic obsession with celebrity life and the desire of many to live vicariously through some rich, scantily-clad stranger's every bong hit"! LOL! That's great!
However I disagree that it isn't a platform for new talent anymore. Just ask anybody in the music business, corporate or independent, everybody you've ever heard or will hear of is on myspace music. I am still amazed by the refreshing and eclectic music talent I've found there, excluding all pop attempting celebrities :)
I say thank GOD there's finally a place on the Internet where I can get the latest celebrity gossip.
And as for faux celebritude, you may sneer all you like, but if you'd ever had the sort of disheartening -- not to say emasculating -- experience I once had with someone pretending (over a period of several months) to be Bea Arthur, you might be less cavalier.
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