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Why MySpace Sucks On Purpose
The reason MySpace has such a horribly ridiculous old-school interface and web application architecture is so that it works slowly and you have to spend a lot of time figuring shit out that should be easy and simple and quick. Wanna know why? So you spend more time on it, and more time looking at ads.
The way the whole thing works is that it hooks into the ritual motion filters your brain stores data patterns within. That is, body memory and visual spatial navigation has a huge impact on your experience of and therefore perception of inforation on the internet.
I know I suck at simplifying shit like this but I just have to keep breaking it down, so…: your behavior is mostly composed of habits which are largely unconscious. That is you do them automatically and your awareness of the moment just sort of skips it if it is a deeply ingrained habit. Have you ever driven home from someplace and not realized how you got home, but you just somehow did automatically and you’d mostly mentally checked out? That can be fine and helpful or disastrous and dangerous depending on the subject matter and severity of a strongly-expressed habit.
So a computer interface which you habitually use has a physical expression of your body: where you look, how much you squint or how you focus your eyes. MySpace is a physical ritual (like smoking a cigarette) which connects to emotional content, your relationships with people, your thoughts, etc. Which explains why its so popular and such an annoying powerful cultural phenomenon.
I never considered that aspect of it though until now, what I hate about it (as I get on it again under different guises): that its interface is intentionally bad. This pisses me off as an interface designer. Your purpose is supposed to be clarity and transparency of visual communication. It is a give and take evolution of each parties needs in creating and in using a piece of software. So to intentionally make a bad one and then make it even worse, it leads me to believe the future of media really is an Idiocracy-style system. That’s how multiple internets develop though. MySpace will branch off into it’s own “perceptual realm” and Wikipedia into its (which I will be following as they are the only political organization I really support). Google will then begin to specializing in filtering OUT information instead of giving you more information. That is, if they want to survive…
September 11th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
We’re the top search result for “poor overthrowing the rich”
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=poor%20overthrowing%20the%20rich
September 11th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Continuing with my daily album posting tradition:
Raekwon’s excellent “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx” - the album that was supposedly responsible for connecting hip-hop to organized crime culturally.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/hh8ps4
September 11th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
On my cookie free browser, your site is number three for “poor overthrowing the rich.” but I gave it a click, maybe that will help it up.
I think Google will start delivering more and more personalized content (like your site being at the top for you, or people in your geographic area/IP block) and less and less absolute content. The result is of course incredibly promising and incredibly dangerous.
September 11th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Absolutely, I have been meaning to write about this. Actually, I have been for months in a very obtuse framing of the language:
consensciousness, parity ratings, etc. I will expand it into modern language, right after you absorb the following densely packed particle burst:
It is called Six Success Strategies™
1. Sow Possibilities.
2. Enrich Relationships.
3. Surround Yourself With Strength.
4. Always Be Executing.
5. Economize.
6. There is no sixth step.
Also, the slogan, “Now that I create value, money is obsolete.”
Will expand these into real pieces of writing as time allows.
September 11th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I’ve known and been annoyed by this aspect of myspace since before I caved in and ‘joined’ it. Facebook is much better in this area, but of course, sucks in others. Myspace is like government, old-style corporate management, or any other monstrosity of a system that everybody knows sucks, knows why it sucks, could easily offer/create better alternatives that don’t suck.. but because the monster is so grotesquely huge and powerful and because the ones in charge of it have such a vested interest in maintaining it at is and *don’t care about the people who actually have to deal with it*, and because most people are tied into it already and are also lazy, it just keeps on going, sucking away and everyone continues to submit to and tolerate it. In case it isn’t clear, I hate myspace.
September 11th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Revised:
1. Sow Possibilities.
2. Create Value.
3. Enrich Relationships.
4. Surround Yourself With Strength.
5. Always Be Executing.
6. Economize.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
hmm. it is always easier to get into a retail environment such as a grocery store or a mall than it is to get out, and all the things you need are always at the back behind the trivial and overpriced crap, so why would myspace be any different if it is to survive in a commercial sense.
we live in a commercial reality……..it would be able to create value independantly and have all you need outside of commerce and money but here we are.
the six points are valid though no matter what theatre you are performing in.
sun tzu would agree.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Yeah I have been reading a lot of Sun Tzu and classic strategy manuals. The Art of War is one of the most profound and elegantly phrased pieces of literature I’ve ever seen.