It seems like each millennial generation has their own preferred platform of social media during their teenage peaking years. As a 22-year-old, I know I can attest to that statement. Yes, Facebook is useful for life updates. Yes, Snapchat is prime for documenting all the mischief of a night out with friends. Yes, Instagram is cool for posting pictures of whatever it is you please. As a matter of fact they're all ok. It's just that they're all super mediocre.
The younger generation will never know what it's like to have all those things under one platform, with music and personalizing a profile. Let's face it— they will never experience anything as dope as Myspace and it's a honestly a shame. Most of us weren't even allowed to have Myspace but did anyway because it was just so "in" at the time. Rebellion at its pure finest if you ask me. If you didn't have Myspace you were probably living under a rock or just super scared of your parents.
These poor young souls don't have the slightest clue of what they're missing. It's quite sad if you ask me. Myspace was literally life during our teenage years and I know that I'm definitely not the only one that feels that way— and here's some of the reasons why:
1. Top Friends...
The order of which friend should be placed where was a much bigger deal than it should have been. It was like ranking your friends from best to worst. Obviously, if you were in a relationship they were first.
2. Music...
Every single time hit someone's profile music would play. Their song choice pretty much summed up what they were like and how cool they were. While snooping on people's profiles it's also likely you've immediately hit pause to avoid their awful song choice.
3. Profile layouts...
It was basically a science customizing your profile when it came to layouts. It had to be perfect and everything had to match— even the song. Themes were no joke because it needed to be flawless.
4. Surveys...
For whatever reason these surveys were addicting and everyone did them. If you were to go back and read how you typed seven or eight years ago, you'd probably vomit.
5. Photobucket...
The OG source for pictures. If you needed to edit them, add text, or get the HTML coding for your profile, Photobucket had you covered.
6. Mirror pics...
Whether your mirror was clean or insanely dirty, mirror pics were always a necessity with your squad. You either used your phone (EnV, Sidekick, Razr, Blackberry) or your digital camera. Flash or no flash, it didn't matter.
7. Your 'About Me' had to be 10/10...
This had to be perfectly witty, clever, and personal— If you were extra original, maybe even a quote there from some mainstream show or movie. Most girls ended it with a <3 because those symbols apparently looked like hearts.
8. All your friends would write an 'About Me' about you...
"Ayooooooo, it's Courtney!!! =] Victoria is literally my best friend in the whole wide world. She's practically my sister so if you mess with her you mess with me hehehe. She's an amazing basketball player and soooo pretty. She's single and ready to mingle, so boys hit her up ;]" ... and lots of other obnoxious stuff.
9. Inverted pictures...
Who started this trend, honestly? There seriously is nothing cool about this. I couldn't even tell you why this was done and shamelessly for that matter.
10. Then there were those excessively edited pictures with text..
I'm still shook that I was THIS lame posting these type of pictures. Looking back now, it's like low-key embarrassing. We should have done way, way less. The amount of other pictures I found like this when writing this article was truly ridiculous.
11. Notifications...
Remember getting home from school and immediately going to your computer to check your notifications? Apps weren't even a thing yet, you had to literally sit down and type in your login each time. It's like another lifetime.
12. The 'lingo'
"Picture comment for picture comment." You know, the original self-promo. This was always mutually respected— nothing like these fake loyal likers who like your pictures on Instagram.
13. Tom...
The man, the myth, the legend—Tom freaking Anderson.
14. You had a million and five of the most random quotes saved that you used in your profile...
Some deep level ish if you know what I mean.
15. "Under Construction..."
When you were fixing up your page, informing your friends that your profile was under construction seemed necessary as if they truly cared or something.
16. "Keep or delete?"
Your new profile picture's caption was "keep or delete" but now you're judging yourself years later for this because if you honestly thought you looked bad why would it be posted in the first place...
17. Adding someone because they were *hot* regardless never meeting them before...
You're a liar if you can honestly deny ever adding someone because you found them attractive. It was almost totally normal to do this if you had mutual friends. Yes, this is weird.
18. Facebook was for 'old people' only...
Facebook was so foreign and it was preached its purpose was for high school age and up. You never thought you'd see the day that Facebook would take over.
19. We learned HTML coding???
Honestly— I couldn't tell you how I personally learned some of this stuff. It was all self-taught and everyone knew how to do it because of mastering how to fix your profile layout and decorations.
20. Being 100-years-old...
No comment other than questioning yourself because this wasn't even that funny— yet we've all fallen victim of doing this at least once. Sad!