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There used to be a marked difference between social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. MySpace was open to all users, from the average junior high kid to the average adult. MySpace grew in popularity because of the ability to use things like custom skins and icons. These are graphic tools that allow for limited expression of individuality in the abyss of cyberspace. If you like kittens, for example, you can rig your MySpace profile page to be overloaded with images of the cute little feline critters. Icons are fun, too: they can be still or animated stills or little miniature video animations all focused on your particular interests. MySpace became a great way to connect with friends that also had MySpace accounts, and a great way to "blog" about your daily experiences, or share personal insights via prose or verse, and all things of that nature. It is also possible to read the posts of other users, as well as to comment on them. Before long, MySpace became quite a raunchy sites as more and more blogs came to boast tales of sexual escapades and naughty pictures. Plenty of young would-be celebrities have been haunted by pictures that they or their friends posted on their MySpace accounts: pictures of them doing drugs, doing the deed, or just striking provocative poses in various degrees of undress.

When it debuted as the creation of two Harvard students, Facebook was a social networking site meant only for college students. Those with school-issued email addresses ending in .edu were able to make accounts and find their classmates, both current and former, and link to their accounts by "Friending" them. Personally, I was able to friend a classmate that I was taking classes with that term, as well as my best friend from first grade who I hadn't spoken to since I was 7 and who was now a Neurobiology major at Harvard University while I attended a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. There wasn't a whole lot to Facebook at first. You could upload a profile picture, and most users used pictures of themselves for this. Others created their own images of their children, their cars, their favorite celebrities, etc. You could also upload your personal photos because Facebook offered image hosting space just like MySpace. You filled out your profile, including your favorite music, favorite movies, books, interests, etc, and you were linked to people in your network (ie, your collection of friends) that shared those same interests. As Facebook became more and more popular, new features were added, called "applications." With these applications it became possible to host actual music files, offered by Facebook, on your profile so that users only had to click to hear your favorite song of the moment. You could also play trivia games, engage in contests and "food fights" and all sorts of things. The only limit to these applications was the creator's imagination. Sending "gifts" that were displayed on profiles also became popular.

Now, however, Facebook is accessible to all users regardless of .edu addresses. Because of this, Facebook is now very much like MySpace. The user count has grown rapidly and expanded well past average college students. More users have also taken to posting raunchy pictures in Facebook albums that make it sadly difficult to differentiate this once purely social networking site from its slightly more depraved counterpart.

Learn more about this author, Huma Rashid.
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