March 18, 2006

If you're not on myspace, you don't exist

Cathy Sierra posts here regarding MySpace and why her daughter finds it so compelling relative to other social networking sites. She thinks it's because MySpace is continually updated with new functionality through rapid software development and lightning release cycles.

However, something she quotes her daughter as saying suggests a different reason: "If you're not on myspace, you don't exist." To me, that indicates her daughter is there because MySpace is the cool, hip, happening place to be right now.

Our discussion continues about how to use social networking in ministry. In particular, see the comments to my post, Scott Reese on MySpace & Paul. It seems that churches are in the earliest stages of exploring this new technology and social phenomenon. So far no one has hit upon a truly effective strategy that they can teach the rest of us.

I'm just old enough that I don't get a lot of this. How is MySpace fundamentally different from the online forums we've had for years? We were grappling with this same question months ago and I still haven't heard a convincing answer. Personally, in the church world I haven't seen forums be nearly as successful as blogs. What am I missing?

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