Lyndsey's X10 Blog

So I know you’ve all been waiting for my ruminations on all topics X10, but I want to spend a minute on a little thing the cool kids call MySpace.

What a complete circus.

I signed up for a MySpace account last night and it would appear that - much to my dismay – I’m the last person in the universe under 50 years old to get a MySpace account. Everyone is there. As a matter of fact, I’ve already been asked to befriend three people – none of whom I know. (One of whom I’m sure wanted me to join a cult.) It reminds me of the days when the internet was full of odd-ball sites run by any geek patient enough to learn HTML. There was the guy with the world’s largest ball of string, boffing hobbyist sites, and who could forget the Jennicam (was that an XCam2???). The beauty in this form of communication was the egalitarian nature of web access. Anyone with enough time and gusto could reach out and touch someone on the web. Ahh, the good old days.

Then businesses got savvier and here we are. We go straight to Google for search (44% of searches), straight to Amazon or eBay for small online merchandise, off to Craig’s List for part-time jobs and free furniture, and naturally direct to X10 for home automation. Anyone can still get his or her own web page, but hasn’t the novelty worn off? You pay for that URL, have to keep the thing updated, and when you think about the time and energy you might spend, couldn’t you be getting paid? What if no one finds you? I mean, when was the last time you took a stroll through the second and third pages of search engine results on a random term looking for a cool, undiscovered site? I wish I could say I had the time and creativity for that. The internet just isn’t as equal-access as it used to be. Some even say that pretty soon, webmasters could have to strong arm bandwidth providers for equal access to users.

But not on MySpace. MySpace is completely equal-access. That’s right kids, the web isn’t just for geeks anymore. Total morons, fraternity brothers, hairdressers, your grandmother, freaky people with bad hygiene – literally anyone – can get a MySpace page. What’s interesting about the way MySpace users communicate isn’t the just that we all have access to them. It’s that they seem to think of it as a big romper room where anything goes. You don’t have to know the person you’re befriending or posting comments to. And it’s ok to meet people on MySpace, talk to them online for months, and never actually meet them in person. In fact, much of the communication that happens in this space isn’t what could be qualified as direct communication at all. It comes in the form of generalized postings and spammy blurbs about “how I’m doing” sent out to all of a user’s “friends.” Is this communication? Is it as equal-access as the old web used to be? What do you think?

Ok. I know I sound like that total loser who’s the last person on the MySpace bandwagon, but what are your thoughts? Do YOU have a MySpace page? Have you tried to get the XCam to send feed to it? (I’m STOKED to do that!) Let me know.

What’s this I hear about fighting for bandwidth?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100094.html

What the heck is boffing?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffing

What’s the jennicam?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JenniCam

…and I hate to admit that I don’t know what craigslist is.
http://www.craigslist.org

Get the xCam2
http://www.x10.com/onsale/new.html