The Internet - Back in the Old Days: Part IV - MYSPACE

I started using MySpace not so much as a personal social media platform, but more because it was a good way to promote music. This is circa 2005/2006 (I can't remember the exact year). I wasn't a huge user of the internet at the time, but a lad that was in another local band told me about it. "Just use MySpace," he said, nonchalantly, when I asked him how he was getting the word out. "What?" was my confused response. Anyway, duly noted, I went and set up an account for my own band ..and then started randomly annoying people.

(I was trying to get Grok to make a MySpace

related image. It doesn't make any sense, but I like it.)

The way it worked back then was that you could literally just search for people by age and location. So, you could set the search for people between the ages of eighteen and thirty, within a twenty mile radius of your hometown, and start adding people. You'd just sit there for an hour sending friend requests to everyone that looked like they might like your music. You'd add one hundred - maybe ten of them would view your profile page. If you were lucky a few might accept the request or listen to your music. Obviously, you were essentially just spamming people, but it was somewhat more innocent and sincere back then, and it did actually work. People would check out the music; some would like it, some would become actual fans. So spending a few hours just adding people was worth the effort.

Pretty soon you'd exhaust your local area though. So then you'd go further afield. You'd start adding people from London or Manchester, or even L.A. and New York. You'd go international.

I Got Bored

As ever my own curiosity took over. I got bored just adding people from the trendy areas, so started adding people from more exotic locations. Sweden, Germany, Iran, Brazil, anywhere. Just to see what would happen. Coming across other young people in foreign countries was quite interesting. Finding out that there were people into indie music, or even heavy metal, in places like Iran was quite a contrast to the worldview I'd gained from TV and popular culture.

Perhaps the weirdest thing was what happened when I started adding people from China though. First of all, there weren't too many Chinese people on MySpace at the time. Given the mega population I was expecting more, but it was quite sparse. Though, to be fair, at the time that was somewhat the case across the board. The internet was much more new back then. After all, I myself had only heard of MySpace a few months previously.

Anyway, the Chinese people that were on the platform, I started adding. Just as I had every other country I'd searched. But then I got a message telling me that my account had been hacked (as if someone other than me had hacked the account and started adding Chinese people randomly), and all the Chinese people I'd friended were automatically unfriended. That was the first time online where I thought, "Oh, China's different." I felt like I'd accidentally entered a restricted area I wasn't supposed to be in.

Conspiracy Content

Finally, the other thing I remember about MySpace is how it opened me up to a lot of new conspiracy type stuff. Back then there was this feature that was like the standard Twitter or Facebook feed, but it was more in the form of a group chat. At least that's how it felt to me - I felt like I was privy to some group conversation. You'd click on it and you'd see all the latest things the people you were friends with had shared. I'm not sure how I came across the conspiratorial stuff, given I'd originally started using it purely for music. I always had those leanings though, so I guess I must have (again, out of curiosity) friended some accounts.

Some of the stuff I'd see back then - though fairly standard now - was completely new to me at the time. I can remember how uncomfortable I felt reading (or listening to - sometimes links were shared) revisionist things about World War II. It wasn't outright Holocaust denial content, more stuff that argued that the German people had legitimate grievances, or that the Nazis didn't actually want war. I can remember having a feeling that I was doing something wrong by even consuming the content. My desire to hear the alternative points of view overrode that though.

I could've shied away, but I'm glad I didn't, as you do have to hear all sides to get a rounded view. Of course, the fact that the German people had hardships and legitimate grievances doesn't excuse ending democracy, invading other countries and putting people in concentration camps, but it does give a deeper explanation. Again, it's more the feeling I'm reminded of though. That you were going somewhere you weren't supposed to go. The internet really did feel like a wide uncharted, and sometimes dangerous, ocean back then. It's seemingly a much more managed and homogeneous space now.