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Paul Nelson, KSL NewsradioWhen it comes to using either MySpace or Facebook, many users are taking sides. Some analysts say which side you pick says a lot about you.
A battle is brewing between the users of the two extremely popular Web sites. University of Utah Student Remii Rivers says he had an account on both sites, but his MySpace.com page is now history because it wasn't private enough. Besides, he says, you meet more studious people on Facebook.
"MySpace is more for getting to know people who are in bands and other different types of areas. It really is [just] partying," he said.
Other students weren't as nice.
One student said, "MySpace is almost becoming more trashy, and just weird people use MySpace anymore nowadays."
Oh, come on, I just used it that one time.
MySpace users aren't going to take that. Student Alvaro Morales says Facebook is a stalker's paradise.
"[It] gives you specific times, specific names, specific groups, who joined what and who talked to who, and I find that very ‘stalkery,'" he said.
Plus, he says MySpace was designed to be a place to loiter online. Hello!
"It's a cyber society. People go to MySpace to hang out," he said.
But with sites so similar in purpose, why are the lines between Facebook users and MySpace users becoming more clear? Tech analyst Jen O'Connell says MySpace is becoming more commercialized, and that's turning some users off.
"Because it has become so commercial, you see a lot of people in the music industry, entertainment industry, sporting, whatever… anyone who wants to promote themselves has to have a MySpace page. It becomes just like a big billboard," she said.
However, other analysts say there may be more to it. Researchers from The University of California at Berkeley say Web users are separating themselves along social and economic lines. The affluent and educated people use Facebook, while the working class, younger crowd congregates to MySpace. O'Connell says she notices that, too.
"[It] really just depends on where everyone is going to gather, and where you have built your largest sense of community," she explained.
Whatever the reasons for the division, researchers at Berkeley say Facebook visitors aged 12 to 17 jumped 149 percent over the past year, while MySpace has lost 27 percent of teens.
