I want to preface this by explaining that I am comparing Myspace 1.0 to Facebook. Current day Myspace is a plague to humanity and should be exterminated. I’m arguing that Myspace in its heyday was far superior to what we have now on Facebook. Anyone that can refute my points can do so in the comments, but I truly believe no one can argue that Facebook is better overall than Myspace, before Myspace 2.0 pulled Myspace into obscurity.

7. Facebook has a friend limit.

Honestly, I’ll never reach the Facebook friend limit of 5k, but that does not mean we have to like limits. I had a bunch of different Myspace profiles for various purposes. Two of mine had 2k friends, so that proves that even an ordinary, shy person is capable of hitting the 5k threshold. Imagine someone that runs a business and Facebook only allows them to reach 5000 people. Facebook has plenty of resources and can certainly handle giving everyone any amount of friends they want. They choose not to, so in that sense Myspace is superior by not limiting the number of friends you can have.

6. Myspace helped many musical acts get discovered.

Adele got discovered on Myspace. Adele is one of the hottest acts in recent years. Sonny Moore, formerly of From First to Last fame, made his mark as Skrillex on Myspace. He released music through Myspace for free. Sean Kingston got his start through Myspace. Panic! At the Disco, who were everywhere for a time, used Myspace to gain popularity. I remember the first time I heard them was on Myspace. Jeffree Star had to be one of the first transgender artists, and he owes his success to Myspace like the rest. Let’s not forget Tila Tequila, when people actually liked her. She was on magazine covers and eventually made the transition to reality TV. Even slightly more obscure acts like Hollywood Undead gathered fame on Myspace. I also discovered other acts through Myspace that I would never have listened to otherwise. Some of my favorites I really got into because of Myspace. Myspace, with its focus on music, helped us discover many of these artists.

5. Facebook has no individuality.

Everyone’s profile on Facebook looks the same. Everyone has a blank white canvas with words written on it. Facebook has the bare minimum of a profile. The experience of viewing a Facebook profile is like editing or reading an essay. It is plain and not very interesting. Nothing stands out. Everyone looks the same. Facebook might as well leave us faceless because there is little individuality in comparison to Myspace. I would liken it to looking through a bunch of unaltered white resumes.

4. Facebook is biased and chooses a political slant.

In my opinion, anyone that is strictly conservative or liberal is probably uneducated when it comes to politics. Both sides have good and bad. No one should favor one over the other and that includes our social media. We should want our social media to look at politics in an unbiased manner. Facebook suppressing conservative viewpoints is certainly a conflict of interest. A former Facebook news curator has come out and said that they were instructed to keep conservative stories from appearing in the trending section. People disliking a party or candidate is completely okay, but censoring them is unethical. We do not censor the atrocities reported in the local news or historically like the Nazi regime for instance, so why is it suddenly okay for Facebook to completely conceal the conservative viewpoint? If they were suppressing liberals, it would not be okay either. Facebook has the gall to say they do not support one party over the other, but their actions show that to be a lie. News, journalism, or anything similar should always be free of bias. Facebook is just another CNN or FoxNews.

3. Myspace had profile songs.

Going back to my previous point on music, Myspace had profile players where everyone could put a favorite song on their profile. Instantly, you had an idea what someone was like because of their profile song. The music someone enjoys says a lot about people. Yes, half the time you were stuck listening to a horrid song, but at least you had an idea what kind of person you were talking to. Myspace even said how many people viewed the song or listened to it before YouTube came to prominence.

2. Myspace had customizable profiles.

I found another site with similar capabilities to Myspace, since Myspace deleted all the profiles, so you as readers can see what it was capable of in the profile department. Look at the link of a similar profile below. It is gorgeous and stands out. You’re never going to see anything like that on Facebook. Myspace allowed you to mess with the coding and change your profile. You could use basic HTML, DIV layouts, or even CSS layouts. Not only that but the other features of Myspace like blogs and groups could have been customized with profile layouts. You could even change what your links said or hide your top friends. Myspace let you virtually do anything you wanted with your profile. In addition, you could tell a lot about a person by viewing their profile. Maybe, one person had a very creative profile layout; whereas, someone else had an empty, barren profile layout. The Facebook experience is like taking the ACT/SAT. You get to fill in boxes. Myspace was more complex and allowed the user to do more with it.

Profile Layout Example

1. Myspace had more features despite existing in a less advanced time.

Everyone that had MySpace remembers their friends getting mad at them because they were not high enough on their top friends. Myspace had so many features in comparison to Facebook. These features included better groups, status streaming, bulletins, comments, messages, instant messenger, public blogs, private blogs, music players, customizable profile/blog/group layouts, better contact box, top friends, more detailed information like age and last login, search function, and again, most importantly, customization. The only thing Facebook does better is the search function. Myspace did all this in a time without apps. Imagine what Myspace 1.0 could do with the apps we have today.