Remember Your MySpace Page? Well, Forget It!
Most MySpace Data Is Gone, And That’s Probably A GOOD Thing!
Maybe it’s a bad picture. Or…it could be something even MORE incriminating! Just sitting there on MySpace, waiting to cost you a job or a relationship. Whatever the reason, it pays to clean up after ourselves on Social Media.
Lots of us (myself included) have Social Media sites we’ve joined, apps we’ve downloaded, and other things we signed up for on the World Wide Web that we no longer use.
And MySpace? MySpace is like one of those big empty cities you see on Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Movies. A once-thriving, bustling metropolis, now reduced to creaking old signs and the occasional tumbleweed blowing across an empty street.
About 4 years ago, I went back to my old MySpace page. I just wanted to see if it was STILL THERE, first of all. And I was curious to see who I was friends with, what music I had used (remember the music? And those groovy overlays?). I did like MySpace for the INDIVIDUALITY it expressed. You merely had to see someone’s page to know what kind of person they were! Goth, jock, materialistic, vain, eco-friendly…whatever. It was all right there. The music someone used and the overlay theme. That’s really all we needed to figure out the kind of person we were. With Facebook, we’re ALL just blue-on-white. Like we’re all at some strict school, wearing the same uniform. But MySpace accounts were more of an expression of our identities!
And now?
It’s all gone.
MySpace users (current and former) first began noticing that older links on the site had stopped working about a year ago. Myspace initially said that it was a ‘bug’ and would be fixed at some point. But now the site has confirmed that it’s all just… gone.
Unless you posted it within the last 3 years, it’s all been hosed. This fortunately/unfortunately applies to about 50 million mp3 files (our music!). Plus, a much larger number of photos and videos. Think back to everything you posted on the MySpace before Facebook came along and ate its lunch. It was all there. All this time. Until now.
And I’m glad. Most of those Identity Thieves and Catfish Types were just grazing over the trove of our pictures and family info, sitting there in MySpace like a Creeper Free-For-All. Good riddance! (cue the Green Day song: “I hope you had the tiiiime of your liiiife…”).
Does this mean Tom and I are no longer friends?
-Johnny