Facebook vs. MySpace

My favorite of the online social networking sites is, by far, Facebook. I find it much easier to search for people and interests there than on MySpace. For instance, I've never actually been able to search for anyone on MySpace with my last name. Even the three people on there who I know have my last name (my cousins) don't turn up after such a search, whereas they do on Facebook.

As for "famous" people, Kevin Pollack, Jon Lovitz, John McCain, Regina Spektor, and Jill Sobule are all my "friends" on MySpace, although I don't really know them. I have several bands as friends, too, some of which I know personally and some of which I don't. Brian Huskey is one of my MySpace friends, and while he is marginally "famous," I also know him in real life. (Incidentally, more and more "famous" people and bands are branching out to Facebook; Carbon Leaf signed on in February, and with the new Entertainment application available on Facebook, a lot of filmmakers, musicians, and writers can make fan pages to create buzz for their new work.)

As for fan pages, some of my "friends" are actually plays, novels, and literary reviews written by or edited by my friends. The MySpace pages serve as promotional tools for them. A friend of mine had a play in the New York International Fringe Festival, so he created a MySpace page for it. He has a book coming out next June, so he just created another page for that. Both Another Day on Willow Street and Band Fags! are now my "friends."

I am not a member of any groups on MySpace. I don't like the MySpace groups. I much prefer Facebook groups. On Facebook, I am the creator of the groups "The Villagers" (a network group for Bard students, and a group which I have since left...), "The Laurie Duncan Fan Club" (a global group for friends of my awesome friend Laurie), " 'Old School' Isn't Just a Hyphenated Adjective" (a global group created as a gathering place for alumni of GSGIS), and "I still won't say 'Bloody Mary' in dark rooms with mirrors in them" (another global group, created just for fun, and playing off an old superstition which many of us still have). I am also a member of groups such as "You Know You're from Richmond When...," "Barats and Bereta," "1,000,000 Strong for Stephen T Colbert," "El Azteca is the Shit," and "KD Cash Control n tha people who luv them!!!" Some of these are common interest groups, and some of them are fan-club-like groups.

I also prefer the photo album feature on Facebook to the one on MySpace. Recently, I took a hiking trip in the Blue Ridge and posted photos on Facebook. I was then able to send a link to the album to my friends and family, even those who didn't have Facebook accounts.

To sum up, I prefer Facebook, although I preferred it longer ago, before people could sign up without joining a network--this would be before people could sign up in a regional network, and even before people could sign up from high school networks.

What I think is most interesting is how quickly certain Internet sites have become part of the American vernacular--turning with Shakespearean ease into verbs and adjectives. I think we all know what it means "to 'google' something," for instance, and I have said to many a new acquaintance or long lost friend, "Yeah, just facebook me, and we'll get together." I've even told people I would "friend" them on MySpace (a phrase which I think actually comes from the practically defunct Friendster site). Such terms, I think, are becoming as commonplace as Kleenex and Band-Aid, White-Out and Crescent wrench. And so, with all of that said, if any of you reading this are interested, please feel free to facebook me... but good luck trying to find me on MySpace.