Throwdown: Social networking sites vie for users' affections

(By Anna Cole: Originally published in the University Journal, January 26, 2009.)

Like any self-respecting Internet addict, I spend a ridiculous amount of time surfing those delightful places that are fondly known as "social networking sites" - namely, Facebook and MySpace.

As the first trend on social Web sites, MySpace has the advantage of experience. It enjoyed its overwhelming fame long before Facebook entered the scene.

However, fresh ideas bring fresh faces, and Facebook, in its relatively short heyday, has far surpassed MySpace's value as a cyber social gathering.

While MySpace does have its uses, they seem primarily centered on blogging and self-expression. Great if you want to document your life, not as useful if you're trying to keep up with someone else's - which is what socialization is all about.

MySpace's flashy layouts, bulletins and page comments simply aren't as conducive to an active social site. Having to search through one's friends just to find an update on how he or she is doing or who said what to whom is far too much effort.

Facebook's neatly centralized social center puts all the updates in one place, so all I have to do is scroll down to see that Mike is eating some chocolate chip cookies and that Jane commented on Max's photos. Not specific friends - although you can specify some if you like - but just friends. All together like friends should be.

Comments and wall-writing are a few more aspects of the social scene that Facebook has perfected to outperform MySpace, specifically in the areas of status comments and wall-to-wall function.

MySpace has friend statuses, of course, but no area for public comment on them, and I love that I can comment on statuses with Facebook.

For instance, my cousin and I (nerds that we are) love to have lyric and quote wars on our statuses. If she posts a song lyric as her status, the challenge is for me to complete the lyrics in the comments without looking it up.

Besides the obvious advantages of social interaction, photos and statuses - as if we needed more - Facebook also provides variety from everyday boring life by means of pirate talk.

It's easy to get tired of plain old English. One might get tired of "writing on the wall," and might instead get the urge to "scrawl on the plank." You can visit your Bottle o' Messages instead of your Inbox.

The wall-to-wall function for posting is also excellent. MySpace comments are all well and dandy, but I'm oftentimes rather hampered by the format, simply because all it shows is the comment box. I'm fairly scatter-brained at times and don't always remember what I wrote before. So when Pinky-Girl25 leaves me a comment that says, "That's so funny! I think so too," I don't want to have to scroll all the way down her page to figure out what I said that she agrees with.

Wall-to-wall is the antidote to this problem. I can click "wall-to-wall" and see our entire conversation to find out that Pinky-Girl25 also thinks that mustard would be an excellent topping on chocolate ice cream.

There are other excellent recommendations for Facebook as well. Advertisements, the ever-present plague, can be tailored to fit one's interests more closely. If I'm tired of weight-loss advertisements (which I most certainly am) I can mark the ads as "misleading," "uninteresting," or "offensive," depending on my level of dislike for the ad.

MySpace ads, mostly sporting obviously doctored weight-loss and beauty photos, are there to stay. Need a girlfriend? A boyfriend? Perhaps both? MySpace knows just where you can get them, and they've all got a crush on you. It gets annoying after a while.

Finally, even MySpace recognizes Facebook's superiority in the Internet world. Not that they say it in so many words, of course. I did notice, however, that every single innovation that made Facebook unique and desirable has been shamelessly copied by MySpace.

Applications - those cute little quizzes that tell you which of the Jonas Brothers you should marry, or show how many countries you've been to, or let you keep a cute little virtual pet - showed up on MySpace long after Facebook had begun using them.

The "People You May Know" function that analyzes friends that people may have in common also appeared on MySpace within the last few months. I notice far less accuracy in the matches on MySpace than on Facebook.

While Facebook analyzed not only my friends, but my college and area networks to cross-reference and find possible matches, MySpace matches seemed to consist of suggestions based on one or two other friends. While Facebook found friends of mine from as far back as elementary school, MySpace found people I'd never heard of in New York and Jamaica.

I could cite hundreds of other examples why Facebook is better than MySpace, but I suspect I've rambled long enough.

Suffice to say, Facebook's advantages are overwhelming. You can poke me if you think I'm wrong, but beware, I might just poke you back.

Anna Cole is the University Journal Opinion Editor. She can be reached at acole@suujournal.com.

A month later...

So, I just realized that I haven't posted on this blog for about a month. Mucho apologies. So... a lot has happened in the last month. I'm pretty sure everybody knows, because my mother is very good about informing people, but just in case someone doesn't (out of the three people who read this blog...), here goes.

My last post took place around Christmas. I was pretty sick. About a week before the semester ended, I started getting sick. I spent the week of Christmas in bed. And the week after that. Then I suppose it must have become evident to Derek and Eryn that something really wasn't good. Maybe the fact that I couldn't eat or drink anything... Anyway. They hauled my sorry carcass into the E.R., and it turns out that was probably a good idea. So... to make a long story short, I got stuck in the hospital for a week.

I hate hospitals. But I did have some interesting adventures with morphine... that stuff messes with your head, I tell you. I'm sure it would have been interesting to watch. So... drugs, tests, needles and vampires (because doctors are secretly vampires. Really.) and Crohn's disease. Yep. So Crohn's disease... means more drugs - steroids, which I have decided are the death of sleep (not the sleep of death) and the enemy of steady hands. Surgeons on steroids - bad idea.

So basically, when I did manage to get back to school (after regaining the strength to stand up and walk on my own) I'd missed three weeks of classes. Lucky for me, Journal folks are awesome, and since they knew what was going on, they covered me for the paper. And my professors are working with me to help me make up what I've missed. Some of them anyway...

I'm doing better now. I'm walking great. I can't run yet, and I still have a little trouble with stairs, but it's a lot smoother sailing now. I've got an appointment with a specialist up in Provo tomorrow, where they're going to knock me out and shove tubes down my throat. Just the sort of thing to look forward to... Ugh. But oh well. Oh - and I'm on a new diet. Which I hate. Because it eliminates all my favorite foods. Like... all of them. No pasta, bread, corn, potatoes, dairy or sugar. It's painful. Oh well.

School is going well, for having missed so much. I've got my own radio show on Power 91 this semester, and that's cool. I love my radio broadcast class... I would love my news editing class a lot more if it wasn't at 8:30 in the morning. Anyway. Speaking of news editing, I've got an editorial to write before my radio hour, so I'd better get crackin'.

More updates as they come along!
--Anna Grace

Home again...

I do love Christmas time. I've fought long and hard with the weather and with my health to be able to make it home this Christmas. So here I am - a week late and sick as a dog - but I'm here. Uncle Tim and Aunt Hyang are supposed to be here soon... It will be so good to see them! I don't know how long they're staying... but it should be nice. Provided I don't have to leave in the middle to go get surgery. Stupid stomach stuff. I am soooooooo tired of being sick. All the time sick. And even though I'm grateful, it makes me feel horrible and helpless when people have to play nursemaid to me. It sort of makes me wonder why I can't quite handle human hospitality.

Either way, I'll be going into town Wednesday (weather permitting). There's a Christmas Eve service at the church, and I need to give Laura and Joy their gifts. Since I wasn't at church this morning. I've still got to finish that drawing for Pete, and I want to make a fish for Derek and a guitar for Eryn from clay.

Eryn finally got her horse on Friday. She is so excited... the horse is beautiful. A huge mustang mare named Roxy. Eryn says she wants me to ride her sometimes. That will be great. She's huge! I haven't been on such a tall horse in years...

Anyway... More happenings as they occur.
--Anna Grace

Moved!

I figure I'd better give closure to my last post so that people don't worry too much. (As if anyone who reads this blog doesn't already know...)
I'm moved out of my other apartment and now living in Enoch. I've only been there a few nights now, but I love it. It is sooooo much more peaceful, safe, and with plenty of food. :P Anyway. Not much more to report, really. I've got finals to study for and a portfolio to work on. So I'd better get back to them. :P
ttyl!
--Anna Grace

The end is near!

Sort of near. The end of the semester, anyway. And the very thought rather makes me want to hyperventilate a little bid, because I totally realize how much I haven't done. In fact, if I pass some of those classes, it will be nothing short of miraculous. There are a lot of reasons for that... none of which would I like to go into at this time.

Anyway. More updates. I'm moving out of my apartment today/tomorrow. I don't know where I'm going yet... I'm just gonna have to figure that out. But whatever.

Also, something cool happened. I have been made an editor for next semester. This, of course is contingent upon continued financial aid to attend next semester... But hopefully things will pull up a little bit.

So... yeah. I gotta get back to work now. More updates later.

--Anna Grace

So...

...Evidently, I'm really good at pissing people off today. Sorry... I really don't mean to... I suppose I just don't get why someone has to be angry that I have a differing opinion, instead of trying to understand it. They spend no time trying to figure out why I might have the opinion I do, and immediately launch into a tirade about why my opinion is wrong, useless, and invalid. I've spent the majority of my life being a timid little throw-rug, asking no questions, giving no answers. I am reeeeally tired of that. I'm done with it. Yes, you have an opinion, and I can respect that. But it does not mean I have to change mine. And ranting and raving is much less likely to get me to change my opinion than a calm, reasoned discussion. Blah. Enough. The people who need to hear this don't even read this blog...

Anyway... Tonight is Christiana's birthday dinner. I feel really bad that I won't be there (am choosing not to be there...) but Kim (roomie's creepy boyfriend) will be there, and I flat out refuse to voluntarily be in the same house with that man, much less the same room at the same dinner table. Furthermore, I have concluded that I am moving out at the end of the semester - which is three weeks - whether I have any place to go or not. If I must, I will re-instate my original plan and pile on extra sleeping bags. Is there such a thing as a battery-operated space heater...?

In further news... I haven't really got any further news. So, updates as updates come, assuming I recognize an update when I see one...
--Anna Grace

A glossary of completely natural words.

This is something that Captain shared with us that I found amusing, interesting, and generally fitting to what I think about the jargon we hear around us every day. I wish I could insert all the conversation in there too (and I may provide some commentary that was said) as we all had a wonderful laugh at some of these things. It's a bit long, but completely worth the read, I assure you. Enjoy!

A Glossary of Completely Natural Words
by Mark Patinkin, published in the Providence Journal (of Providence, Rhode Island)

I noticed that a "truth-in-menu" bill has been introduced at the Rhode Island General Assembly. It's to force restaurants to be honest when they describe their dishes. Many, for example, try to sneak around the red-flag words like "frozen." They insert "fresh" instead.

For the past few years, I've been collecting examples of how people sneak around red-flag words. It seems to be an increasing problem. One way to stop it, perhaps, is to publicize the abusers. So today, I offer a sampling from the collection.

Autoyards these days believe it's beneath them to stock junk radiators. They're now called "pre-dismantled, previously owned parts."

The next time you buy a bathroom plunger, you might get a blank stare if you ask for the bathroom plunger section. Certain manufacturers have taken to calling them "hydroforce blast cups."

Then there's the cemetery business. Some are no longer advertising the availability of burial plots. Instead, they now offer "pre-need arrangements."

And in Canada, nannies don't simply nanny anymore. A firm up there said its nannies "interface with children in an habitual way."

Government is particularly good at this. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, found "serious adverse effects" in the use of a certain chemical. The adverse effect was 38 deaths. Pretty adverse.

And if you get a call from your just-convicted husband telling you not to worry about it, they're only going to put him in the "capital sentences unit," maybe you should worry about it after all. That's the new phrase for death row.

One of my favorite examples comes from the Army War College instructor who told his class that when you're surrounded, you should never look upon the enemy as a superior force that's about to crush you. Consider them a "target-rich environment."

The insurance business sometimes refers to death as a "mortality experience." Actually, they do even better. The way it usually comes out is that groups that don't smoke have "a more favorable mortality experience" than those who do.

School systems are avoiding the term "budget cut." It's more popular to refer to that as "institutional self-help."

In the same vein, AT&T was recently asked to explain why a few hundred of its employees were fired. They weren't fired, AT&T said. "They were involuntarily separated." (When SUU fires a faculty member, it's not a firing, it's just that the faculty member's contract was not renewed.)

Similarly, a Rolls spokesman refused to say his cars break down. Occasionally, he allowed, they "fail to proceed."

A college student was recently asked by a reporter whether his friends were into drugs. The denied it, but did concede that one or two have "pharmaceutical preferences."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army has begun to refer to civilian casualties as "collateral damage."

Social workers are getting better at this, too. They rarely use the word "murderer." Instead, their clients have shown "anti-social behavior patterns." A "slum" in their lexicon, is a "culturally deprived area." Poor people are "deprived elements."

I decided to take an assortment of these examples and try stringing them together. Here's how it came out:

"A deprived element showed anti-social behavior yesterday, causing collateral damage to four passers-by. His attorney asked the judge for leniency, explaining his client has pharmaceutical preferences. But he was sent nevertheless to the capital sentences unit where, in two weeks, he will suffer adverse effects. Pre-need arrangements are already being planned."

Most of these examples are amusing, I suppose, but there's a serious side to the truth-in-language issue. Bill Moyers once spoke of it eloquently.

"The great enemy of understanding," he said, "is imprecise language. Yet the pollution of our language spreads everywhere, like great globs of sludge crowding the shores of public thought."

May we all find ever more direct ways to say what we mean.

Love,
Anna Grace