The Myspace Experiment

[Nightfable]

OMG Radiant, I'm laughing so hard I nearly peed my pants!!!!

[mouthuvmine]

Or there's always F: Get a change of pants ready for Nightfable.

[shbaz]

Don't care x5

My MySpace artist page was made solely to allow some of my friends to hear my satirical country/western song "I'll get down on one knee, if you'll get down on two."

Some of the private messages from random drop-ins (from my area) I got were pretty funny, considering it is a joke.  Lots of people do take MySpace seriously, for some reason.

[Vash]

Thankyou to Stupot & Nightfable for answering my questionnaire, I'm up to 6 out of hopefully 20 participants and the majority of the posters who have helped my out have been from the AGS forum, so thankyou AGS forum goers ...

I put down TAFE for question 4 which is a form of higher education in Australia forgetting quite stupidly that its not a worldwide institution, so don't worry I'm the Noob  ...

cheers,
dave

[vertigoaddict]

It depends really. But I think E all the way and I'd feel really depressed. (I don't go to myspace though)

[SpacePirateCaine]

1.  Your best friend moved you from first position in their myspace friends list to 5th position do you:
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

Though I'm aware that there are certain unwritten rules of MySpace friends lists, apparently, my position on a friend's 'Top x' doesn't really affect me. At present, I am in the fourth position on my best friend's MySpace page though we both acknowledge that we are best friends.  His girlfriend also takes up position 5, beyond me. I have no idea about the method he uses to position his 'top' people, but it doesn't really have much bearing on anything, as far as I'm concerned.

2.  Your 2nd best friend moved you from second position in their myspace friends list to 8th position do you:
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

I have a hard time quantifying the best-ness of all of my friends, really, and I also wonder at the accuracy of this measuring scheme - if someone is your second best friend, does that necessitate that you be their second best friend as well? It seems like I could have a very close friend, who is just perhaps quantifiably below whom I would consider my 'best' friend - but that person considering me their closest friend. Are best friends and second best friends exclusive titles? What if someone was my second best friend, because I didn't have very many friends, but they have many friends that they consider closer than me? It seems pretty natural. So it wouldn't bother me in that case either.

3.  A friend moves you from fifth position, to out of there top myspace friends list do you:
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

I don't honestly even think I'd notice, but even if I did, I can't imagine a scenario where it'd effect me emotionally - if I knew that they place people based on whom they consider to be their closest friends, I may be slightly flattered, but wonder about the people who were 'demoted' ahead of me.

4.  Someone you hang around with at school/higher education deletes you from there myspace friends list do you:
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

Again, this depends on a number of factors - if they were cleaning up their friends list, of course it would make sense - since it's just a school friend, I don't really expect anything in particular. I'm entirely unsure I'd even notice in the first place.

5.  Someone you met at a party the other night and spoke with briefly adds you to myspace and then deletes you the next day:
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

I don't consider casual acquaintances, i.e. people I meet at parties, work, out on the street to have any obligations toward me, especially in an online community/chat site like MySpace.


I think that a lot of these scenarios also have to do with peoples' reasons for moving things on their 'top' lists. Because MySpace doesn't have vertical/horizontal limits for pictures on their photos, I often reorder people on my list from 'tallest' to 'shortest' photo, for example, for aesthetic reasons.

This said, I'm not sure if you're taking such things into consideration, but it might be useful to get more information from the people who take your questionnaire, such as age, time spent on the internet/blogging weekly, gender and so on and so forth. I have a feeling that your research would benefit greatly from knowing these things. Now, if that doesn't matter to you, then it's no big deal, but I imagine that if you get 20 people answering, but 19 of them are over 25, working full time and spend very little time online, your results are going to be very biased toward that demographic. Just food for thought.

[ManicMatt]

When I first used myspace I never considered that the top friends was in any kind of order. After all, there is no numbering system used. So I have never placed my top friends in any order, except for my girlfriend who was insistant that I place her in the top left corner, or.. in the number one spot.

1.  Your best friend moved you from first position in their myspace friends list to 5th position do you:
B:  (Upset) Ask them about it once you see them in person

If we consider that my girlfriend is the best friend as has me in her "number one" position, if she was to move my placement, I would think that perhaps I have done something to upset her, and would ask her what's up.

2.  Your 2nd best friend moved you from second position in their myspace friends list to 8th position do you: 
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

My real offline friends do not use Myspace, except for my girlfriend, so I wouldn't really care if my online pal Victor moved me to another location on his friend's list. It's his list, and I rarely use myspace anymore.

4.  Someone you hang around with at school/higher education deletes you from there myspace friends list do you: 

Someone from my top list is no longer there. They either deleted their profile or removed me from their friend's list. Either way, I don't even know who it was...

5.  Someone you met at a party the other night and spoke with briefly adds you to myspace and then deletes you the next day: 

I can't EVER see that happening. Ever. "Ooh let's be myspace friends!" hahaha.

[Vash]

Thanks SpacePirateCaine & ManicMatt for answering my questionnaire.

Space: I totally agree that a persons age and gender should be apart of my questionnaire as it would identify more than just generalised patterns. However I wasn't sure if I should ask for this information as it might be considered intrusive. That said it could probably be assumed that those happy to take the survey would not be bothered by anonymously stating age and gender, but I didn't want to push my luck ...

The level of internet hours a person spent online wasn't something I considered :o , but now that you've mentioned it seems highly relevant.  I will discuss it as one of the limitations of my current results and highlight it as a future improvement in testing. Thankyou for your thoughts on this, would you mind if I quoted some of your ideas regarding my experimentation?

ManicMatt: Your right. There does seem to be a level of insistence between boyfriends & girlfriends wanting top spot, despite as you say the lack of a number system. The whole boyfriend/girlfriend scenario is definitely something I will explore in my analysis.

Question 5 is probably a little too vague.  It was meant to indicate someone deciding that they liked you (after the party/event), who subsequently searched for your profile and asked to be added.  Then once you have added them they decide to delete you shortly thereafter for reasons unknown...

cheers,
dave

PS: Up to 9 out of 20, thanks to those who have helped out

[SpacePirateCaine]

Sure, Vash, go right ahead - anything I said in this post is for use in your research, so of course you can feel free to quote at will. And for your own personal edification, I'm male, 26 and check my MySpace at the most once a week, often less. It might not be a bad idea as well to ask how important they consider their profiles on/usage of MySpace is. I honestly don't put much stock in it, so my answers are likely much more biased toward a straight 'E' spread.

It may also be a good idea to host this same questionnaire on MySpace itself. You're much more likely to find high representative stats for MySpace users as well, that way (Though I imagine you probably are, already).

In regards to ManicMatt's 'girlfriend' thing - there is definitely some correlation, I think, between perception of the 'top x' for casual users and people who actively groom their MySpace page. In the case of my girlfriend, she doesn't use MySpace, but is actively using Cyworld (Korean community site). Cyworld doesn't allow for reordering people on your friends list, so that's sort of a moot point, but if (for example) she removed me from her friends' list (which would also hide most of her information, blogs and photographs from me), it might cause me some great amount of concern. Especially considering that it is one of the few methods of communication we have while she lives in Korea and I in Japan.

That, I think, stems from the fact that I know when she is actively using Cyworld, she trims her page to reflect real-life thoughts and feelings. In the case of my best friend and I, we aren't really serious about the way we use MySpace, Facebook, or whatever, so it doesn't really make a big difference. So in this case - I can really agree with ManicMatt, and it's as I said, it depends on how you believe the other person uses MySpace.

On a semi-related note, I wonder if you've heard the song 'New Friend Request' by Gym Class Heroes? This whole thread reminds me of it.

[FSi++]

1.  Your best friend moved you from first position in their myspace friends list to 5th position do you:
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

2.  Your 2nd best friend moved you from second position in their myspace friends list to 8th position do you: 
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

3.  A friend moves you from fifth position, to out of there top myspace friends list do you: 
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

4.  Someone you hang around with at school/higher education deletes you from there myspace friends list do you: 
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

5.  Someone you met at a party the other night and spoke with briefly adds you to myspace and then deletes you the next day: 
E:  (Unperturbed) Not discuss it with them

What? I have myspace, I just never use it.