Old School vs. New School - Classmates.com and Myspace
Had some fun over the weekend reminiscing about the past. I decided to do some research and see what some people I went to high school and college were up to through searches on Classmates.com and Myspace. My finding were pretty interesting…
First, let me start by saying that I am 30 years old, have been out of high school for 12 years, and out of college for 8. At 30, I am getting close to that creepy age on myspace, where some of the younger members are young enough to be my kids. But I digress…
I have had a “listing” on classmates.com for a while, even though it was empty. I think everyone who has ever attending high school in the United States has at least a blank listing. I’m just happy they don’t scan everyone’s yearbook photos in. Classmates.com is great for remembering names, but offers little information about the person you are searching for, either because their profiles are empty, or you have to pay to become a member to find out more info. This is the old-school model of community websites. While they are heavily ad-supported, they just give you a taste before making you cough of some dough. Hmm, this could be why there are so many blank profiles.
Myspace is a different story. After filtering by school, only those who have myspace accounts are shown. Those that are members are certainly not shy about posting picture and writing about themselves. Myspace has similar profile questions as classmates.com, but most people do fill them out. You also essentially get your own webpage and blog with myspace, with it’s own URL. Myspace also music and comedy sections, forums, classifieds, and much more.
Now, my results. I was able to find a few people from high school on classmates.com. It’s been really nice emailing them back and forth. The big surprise was finding an old friend that was a foreign exchange student from Sweden, and an outstanding soccer player for our high school team. Now he is a poker star in Sweden! On myspace, I ended up creating my own page. I’ve been able to find a few people from high school, and a few from college, and have been emailing them as well. Myspace is great for the shock value of seeing what people you knew 15 years ago look like today. Honestly, I am amazed some of them even know how to turn on a computer.
But what these two sites really demonstrate is the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, or whatever you want to call them. Classmates.com, as much as it is trying to change, is still fairly one dimensional. You go there to see if old classmates have filled out their profile, then you leave. You may check back in a few months later, but chances are nothing has changed. Myspace is all about social networking. I can rekindle old friendships, even if only online, or even become “friends” with a popular local radio show. You keep checking back in and getting your fix, sometimes hourly. And that is why is the most visited site on the internet, and why is advertising delivery model is so effective.
Steve,
So true. I joined classmates six years ago, used it for about six months to find old friends and didn’t renew my membership. I wonder how some of these sites that continue to charge a fee for their use stay in business.
The scary one I recently found was myyearbook.com. In my high school, the only two members over 18 were myself (36) and a woman who is 50, who may be there to monitor her kids.
My question is: Why are so many of these sites filled with sex? I guess that I do and do not understand it all at the same time. I’d be horrified if my daughter were on myyearbook.com. (Protective parent mode kicking in again.) Enough ranting for now . . . Thanks for the post!
Comment by Angela Klein — August 17, 2006 @ 2:07 pm
what’s worse, is that classmates has seem to become even *more* restrictive in what it will show to non-paying members.
there’s really no use for classmates.com when myspace is free and gives me exactly what i’m looking for.
good luck to them.
Comment by jon — November 8, 2006 @ 3:23 pm
I use both MySpace and Classmates, but in different ways. MySpace is random entertainment. The only real people are colleagues from work or other parents checking it out… “Friends” aren’t really anybody you know and 99% of the many friend requests I receive are really fake profiles trying to get me to go to another website to see or meet them… The idea of MySpace is cool but the reality isn’t. I’m in my 30s and when I looked up my large public high school on MySpace to find friends and search for anyone listed from my graduating class of 800 people or anyone who is in their 30s or 40s (a 10-year span!) NOBODY other than a fake profile came up in the results.
I recently visited Classmates after a long time away because I got an email about an upcoming reunion. While it wasn’t as flashy I ended up caring more about it listing real people I know by their real names from my schools, college and work. I searched for a span of a few years and found more than 1,000 people and knew many of them. It may not be as flashy but for me it was a lot more useful. When I visited last week I noticed that as a free member now I can see photos and profile information I couldn’t see before so this must have changed for the better. They had some people mapping and other features I didn’t check out yet but it looks like there is more at Classmates then there was before…
Comment by Scott — April 25, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
<strong> popcorn machine
…</strong>
http://m.domaindlx.com/usatop/popcorn-machine popcorn machine
…
Trackback by popcorn machine — January 31, 2008 @ 8:21 am