Justin Timberlake may be taking his role in the “The Social Network” a little too seriously with his attempt to revamp Myspace.
The singer-turned-actor-turned-unofficial SNL cast member tweeted a link to a video last week that previewed the new and improved site. The video only gives viewers a few seconds to glimpse into each new aspect of the site, but the preview shows some features that may seem familiar.
“The new Myspace has taken aspects of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Tumblr and combined it into one universal site,” says freshman Amber Roth, of The Maneater staff. “The site hasn’t just copied the ideas of other sites, though. The design remains unique and shows that it can be used for different media.”
Myspace’s emphasis on music and the iconic top friends list are still a part of the site, yet there are parts that have been incorporated from other social networks. There’s a tab called “stream” that looks quite similar to the Facebook newsfeed, and a feature that restricts posts to 140 characters, which is a concept pretty much invented by Twitter. The style of the site seems to echo that of Pinterest, which makes me wonder if pinning pictures of One Direction to my wedding board will now be considered proper Myspace etiquette?
So, will borrowed features like the Pinterest style help boost Myspace’s popularity? MU sophomore Abby Holman, who teaches a social media Freshman Interest Group, doesn’t seem too sure.
“It just has to be the new thing,” Holman says. “There has to be something that makes it different that pulls people away from using Facebook and Twitter. From what I’ve seen in the video, combining them could do that, but I think it’ll more have to do with marketing.”
The new Myspace seems to be on the right track by using Timberlake to promote the site and its new features. There’s a part in the video where Timberlake browses through users who are listening to his music and then sends out exclusive footage to his top fans. I don’t know what all entails becoming a top fan, but you can bet I’ll be trying my hardest to become one.
Music fans may also find that another feature that makes the new Myspace appealing is the ability to connect through other social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. According to The Seattle Times, this is a sign that the new Myspace isn’t trying to compete with these other social media networks overtly. Still, we all only have a limited amount of time to spend reblogging cat gifs on Tumblr and Facebook stalking that cute guy from the laundry room. Do we really need yet another popular site to waste away our productivity on?
“Oh, I hope not,” Holman says. “I don’t need any more social distraction, but if it becomes big enough, I feel like it’ll be one of those things that you just have to have.”
Will Myspace become big enough to make a heroic comeback? Or will it join the ranks of Google+ as another social networking site we joined, but never used? Right now, you can sign up at new.myspace.com to get on the mailing list to stay informed on the revamp, but until then, it looks like we’ll have to wait until the site is finally up and running.
