- "Glorious Domination" by CFO$ {Bobby Roode}
Never in this last decade would I have thought to use the repetitive lyrics of a short verse of a Professional Wrestler's entrance music to describe my undying support for my most frequently visited website. But that's how I can truly, honestly sum up in words, my personal perseverance with all that the Myspace brand has been through in the last decade, in a nutshell.
It was on the final weekend before Memorial Day in 2007 when I first accessed this currently inactive URL: https://signups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=signup
The sole reason I created a Myspace account at that time was as a way to connect with my friends who were about to graduate Middle School along with me, knowing that we'd end up in different High Schools. I wouldn't nor couldn't imagine that in the same time period, 10 years ahead, I'd be more personally connected to the website brand itself than the people (family, friends, celebrities, music artists, comedians, brands, etc) on my friends list.
My first 2 years on Myspace were entirely copacetic. I was so fascinated with the fact that I could conveniently interact with family, friends old & new, and public figures all on the same platform. And sure, some of their profiles were a bit extreme when it came to the HTML, but I looked past that because I taught myself ways to private message or comment on their profile without accessing their profile. I was even more fascinated with the fact that I could log in to my account through a mobile device such as a Playstation Portable or my mom's pre-smartphone flip phone. And then once 2009 had arrived, the world as I knew it started to change before my very eyes.
In the Summer of 2009 during a visit to my house by my cousin, I first became aware of the cultural transition that had flown over my head for a while before that day. It was the very first time that I had been told that Myspace was no longer the go-to Social Network and that it had been topped by Facebook. To paraphrase, she recommended to me that I should depart Myspace and jump ship to its competitor because that became the site where she and her friends were making themselves known. Keep in mind that my cousin resided in Rincón, Puerto Rico at the time and when she informed me of this, I assumed this was just a societal thing in that small corner of the country and that it didn't translate to a metropolitan populous like New York City. And in addition to that, my friends were still as active on Myspace as I was, so I saw absolutely no reason to believe this absurd claim that my cousin had presented to me. Little did I know, in the next year and a half, I would see the true colors of the "Top 8" friends on my friends list.
And those colors were Blue and White. Not the Blue and White of Myspace's logo and color scheme at the time. They were the Blue and White of its succeeding rival. And I went from originally thinking nothing of it, to bleeding the colors of the Social Network that became the catalyst for sparking a creative side of me that I didn't know existed. And ironically, starting in 2010 and every year since then, "Myspace" literally became "My. Space."
2010 became a year of awakening for me and liberation for others. Myspace at the time, had a widget on its homepage that showed the names of your friends that were online at the same time you were so you could instantly connect. At the start of 2010, I probably had at least a dozen friends actively logging into Myspace. By Mid-2010, that number cut in half. By December, it was at 2. January 2011 marked the first time in the 4 years I've been on Myspace that I was the lone user of the website within my inner circle. But going back to the month prior. In December of 2010, I labeled myself as the "Fresh Sole Survivor of Myspace". I gave myself that self-establishment because of the fact that the activity on Myspace among my friends became non-existent every couple of months and by the final month of the year, it was as if a nuclear bomb had dropped and I happened to be the 'Sole Survivor' of Myspace. And with that title, I vowed to stick with my favorite Social website no matter who suggested to me otherwise. I was comfortable with where I was at and my goal was to relate that message to the entire world.
And that's what I did 2 years later in the form of this YouTube video where I unapologetically brought the verb of "Myspaceing" back into the English speaking vernacular. And this video which is actually directed to Myspace instead of its former audience. And so on, and so forth between 2014 and the present year. For 7 years now, I have actively posted status updates and uploaded my own personal media knowing good and well that I don't have a single friend online to view it. And that's why...
'I won't give in': I won't give in to the peer/family/societal pressure of leaving Myspace in the past. You'll have to pry my devotedness to Myspace from my cold, dead hands.
'Till I'm Victorious': I'm ready to have a good old-fashioned Myspace vs. Facebook debate with anybody until Myspace is proven victorious.
'And I will defend': I will defend Myspace with the same fiery spirit that's been burning inside of me for 7 fucking years.
'And I'll do what I must': I'll do what I must to enhance this potentially viral campaign. One that itself, is almost a decade old.
'Oh so glorious': Myspace has been in the game since 2003. So it has every right to be referred to as simply GLORIOUS!
'Until the end': God forbid that day ever comes. But the foreseeable future of Myspace, even with all the finger pointing that it receives, looks to continue to be of public interest from this point to the year 2027. And on that year, I plan on typing up and publishing another blog while in the position of being one of the longest tenured active Social Media users alive and Myspace.com will continue to forge ahead while remaining unsullied through my eyes!