Oct 15, 2005

Kangaroos in your china cabinet

"Whatever you're looking for, the Army can help you find it."

Oppression?
Piece of mind on your sleeve?
C-rations?
Sand in your pants?
Vengeance for grandpa?
Free rides in nifty vehicles?
Jesus?
Bushwhack's compliments?
Unjust premature death?

I don't get why Myspace is so trendy. I can only view it as a vastly inferior substitute for building your own original, expressive web site from the ground up using your own creativity and ingenuity. Of course, since many people lack the creativity, ingenuity, and time required to learn the mechanics of building a web site from the ground up, you have services like Myspace.

There, you have uniformity. All the pages look predictably similar in their drabness, and there isn't much individual expression save for what people decide to fill in on profile forms. In a way, it's awfully depressing to ask someone if they have a website and get referred to their Myspace account. That's not what I meant by "website." Really, it wasn't.

It's probably just me, though. It usually is.

I just don't want to have to start asking, "hey, do you by any chance have a website... that isn't a Myspace account?"

I don't mean to sound like an elitist just because I built my own website from raw code in notepad and managed to get it operating semi-decently. Sure, most of the final product came out of hours upon hours of trial and error and months of blood, sweat, and tears, but I don't think of myself as 'superior' for having chosen to do that over a pre-designed template that already has everything programmed.

In fact, at this point in time, when I look back on the work I've done, it seems horribly obsolete and shoddy and in need of a complete overhaul. Total amateur bullcrap. It breaks countless federal accessiblity laws, doesn't even come close to complying with current XHTML standards, and completely lacks a sufficient navigation scheme! Jail me. Hell, roll in the guillotine.

I would still rather claim something like that as my personal webspace than a Myspace account, though. A personal website speaks so much more strongly for one's individuality, and desire to stand out a little. The same applies for any other Myspace clones or predecessors. When it's implied to me that I must not be too connected to the Internet because I don't have a Myspace account is when I commence ranting and attempting to set some heads straight.

So that's my two cents on the subject. Or rather, my two, no three circular slabs of copper on the subject. Gods, I'm so original.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was going to start writing a comment that agreed with how insipid and dull MySpace is on a whole. I tremendously dislike that service and although I do have an account, it was because someone else told me to make one. I never use it except to make it mention my blog. Seems about as much rightful purpose as it should serve.

Point being, I was going to write a long comment about it, but the mere idea of MySpace has already begun to bore me. I don't have the interest to say much about it. I agree with you though; there's nothing quite like building your own website with pure code that you've put together. Even if it fucks up, at least it's your effort, and your creativity and work.

Timberwolf said...

Peer pressure, yeecchhh.

Though, today, somebody redirected me to 4chan, and I must say, I found it to be one of the most pathetic web sites I have ever had the displeasure of visiting.

Anonymous said...

I constantly get linked to 4chan and it irritates me to no end. I have never once bothered to click on any of the links given to me. If I wanted to see some picture or flash clip, then I would find it myself. I'm not about to click links because they're trendishly funny.

Fuck 4chan. You all can stop linking me to it, because I don't visit.

Anonymous said...

I've yet to figure out what the deal is with people who have MySpace accounts. ...It's like they're these annoying, ranty, teenyboppers, a generation too late to contemplate old internet technology, with nothing to say, who wish they could post some real content, so they exhibit themselves in immaterial tidbits and photographs fit for a dating profile.

P.s. J/k.. 21/f/fl I love anime, DDR, long walks on teh beach, and I think MySpace roxors.

Yeah, now I'm just being silly. =P

Timberwolf said...

I constantly get linked to 4chan and it irritates me to no end. I have never once bothered to click on any of the links given to me. If I wanted to see some picture or flash clip, then I would find it myself. I'm not about to click links because they're trendishly funny.

Fuck 4chan. You all can stop linking me to it, because I don't visit.


Yeah, and it figures that 90% of people who ever directed me to 4chan happened to be from VGC. I can only arrive at the conclusion that the majority of its population has miserable taste in just about everything.

I've yet to figure out what the deal is with people who have MySpace accounts. ...It's like they're these annoying, ranty, teenyboppers, a generation too late to contemplate old internet technology, with nothing to say, who wish they could post some real content, so they exhibit themselves in immaterial tidbits and photographs fit for a dating profile.

P.s. J/k.. 21/f/fl I love anime, DDR, long walks on teh beach, and I think MySpace roxors.


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