I love that you grabbed danah boyd's Friendster profile. But of course, because that's going to be the easiest one to find since she was the first person to take social networks seriously. It's been many years since I've invented research questions in order to email her, but based on her willingness to humor me, I'd guess she'd be happy to chat with you about ye olde golden days of social media.
I'm seriously old in that I was 22 in octal before I encountered a computer. I used to punch my crush 's punchcards for his IBM data sets, and my first job computer was a DIGITAL PDP8. But my age never pinched me until I started having to transfer money over Venmo and discovered that depending on how I set my parameters, other users could see my transactions. I went like what the actual fuck is up with THAT!?
I really wanted to share that there was a social network in 00s Russia that was basically like Facebook for ex inmates. Alas, apparently it was just a spoof. But my naive teenager self really believed it!
First off, welcome back from vacation, Anne! Second, I don't think your text about the rubber band ball was too weird. Honestly, it can never get weird enough, but that's just me, I guess.
OK, this Friendster interview with Ryan was great! And nostalgic! I remember that I liked my Friendster account. It was nice to see some basic info about my friends and their friends, but it was also nice because I don't think anyone took it too seriously. So even though Friendster was my first social network, it didn't feel weird to put this info online or creepy to read about your friends. In a strange way, Friendster might've been the most organic platform ever, or maybe I was just naive. Regardless, I was friends with Pizza The Hut, and that made me happy because it had always been my dream to befriend a Spaceballs reference.
Anyway, I eventually left Friendster for MySpace, where I learned about all the shitty bands in my social network. I figured Friendster was just dead, but somewhere around 2007 or 2008, I was working as a trade reporting covering ad tech, and I got pitched by Friendster PR. I couldn't believe it! I ended up meeting with the Friendster people at a conference. They kept trying to get me to write about how they were a huge gaming social network in Asia, and I kept trying to get them to resurrect my old account and tell me what happened to Pizza The Hut. I don't think I ever filed a story on Friendster, but if I had, it would've appeared on a website that went out of business somewhere around 2017. Thanks for the nostalgia and the insight on this one, Anne & Ryan!
Friendster - no idea it even existed. The transparency of info sounds like fun. To that note, I think there’s a new wave of social media thinking being born out of Gen Z’ers (would love to know other Gen Z’ers opinions as well):
Although I’m not active on BeReal, the success of its concept makes sense. As Gen Z’ers, we’ve tried the 9 different profiles, deleting pictures that don’t get enough “likes”, restarting accounts, etc.. The new fun is just simply saying, “Here I am! This is me! Take it or leave it!”
I could see this trend continuing, and Broderick may be right: maybe Friendster was just ahead of its time.
One aspect of Friendster's death that I've never seen discussed is that it was awash with fake profiles -- not to trick anyone, but to amuse others! You could pretend to be a ham sandwich and have exchanges with dozens of other people/sandwiches: it was great. But Friendster wanted to primarily be a hook-up site (ala the long forgotten Nerve) and started swatting down the satire and parody profiles, which caused a lot of anger amongst users, who then began abandoning the site. I'm convinced that if it had instead just instituted some moderate limits -- no fake celebs, etc -- it would have thrived for a lot longer.
I ate at Teany (I still crave that peanut butter bomb cake. Sigh.) and had a RAZR flip phone (so cool) and whilst I didn't date Moby, I did interview him a couple of times, but I have no recollection of Friendster! But I now feel like I missed out on some fun times! Maybe you can bring it back!
I remember being on Friendster in college! And being friendsters with all my friends in college! And having SO MUCH ANXIETY about what to write in the "About Me" and "Who I Want to Meet" sections. I am also really struck by/surprised by the idea that being yourself online is passé. Whoah.
Okay so first off thanks for making me feel like I missed out on making out with Moby while everyone else was doing it. Second, I don’t think your text was weird. Weird would be putting the rubber balls on all your friends’ shrines and sending photos as they travel around. You know, like the yard gnomes in “Amelie”… (BTW if you wanna do it, I’ll make room on my shrine 😂) And thirdly, thank you for the Friendster flashback. I refused to join because at the time I was convinced the whole idea of having online interaction with your friends no less was utterly idiotic. Like why can’t we just call each other?! Then I wasted a few years on Facebook instead 🙄 I do vibe with your comment below, maybe we have to come full circle - from real profiles, to carefully “branded” profiles, to multiple profiles that are all mostly fake, to get back to a place where social networking can be a delightful way of keeping in touch with actual close circles - minus the constant ad noise, the unsolicited opinions of relative strangers, the anger, the FOMO generated by perfectly staged photos of “oh just another day at the beach” etc. The Friendster profile pic looks so quaint. I guess I’m nostalgic for a platform I was never even part of!!! 😂
I was in chat rooms as a preteen before going to BlackPlanet and briefly MySpace. Friendster seems like it was too old for me at the time. I went to Tumblr for a while and let that go dark. It’s so interesting to see social media graveyards and the people we were while we were on them.
hi! i got here via garbage day and just wanted to say how much i enjoyed the writeup, but the rubber band story too. i have my own rubber band ball - as a kid i loved on pee-wee's playhouse when he would bring out the rubber band ball or the foil ball to add a new piece and see how big it had gotten. fond memories!
i never joined friendster - i think my first social media (beyond AIM/ICQ/MSN and email) was deadjournal, and then i switched over to livejournal. back then for both sites you needed to have an invite from a current user to join. i still have my livejournal and may go back to it. i did eventually join myspace, because i could not join facebook. when facebook first came out, you needed a college email address to join and i went to a small art school that did not have such a thing. also around that time i joined what i think was called melo, short for melodramatic. as i recall everything was a lavender color, and it was basically like myspace except i used to post embarrassing poetry there, and i think they had some kind of point system with a lot of sexual innuendo, like getting points for popping someone's cherry, i.e. being the first to post on their page etc. i wish i could remember what the points were called! anyway, fun trip down memory lane all around, thank you <3
I love that you grabbed danah boyd's Friendster profile. But of course, because that's going to be the easiest one to find since she was the first person to take social networks seriously. It's been many years since I've invented research questions in order to email her, but based on her willingness to humor me, I'd guess she'd be happy to chat with you about ye olde golden days of social media.
Those rubber-band balls belong in MOMA:)
I'm seriously old in that I was 22 in octal before I encountered a computer. I used to punch my crush 's punchcards for his IBM data sets, and my first job computer was a DIGITAL PDP8. But my age never pinched me until I started having to transfer money over Venmo and discovered that depending on how I set my parameters, other users could see my transactions. I went like what the actual fuck is up with THAT!?
I really wanted to share that there was a social network in 00s Russia that was basically like Facebook for ex inmates. Alas, apparently it was just a spoof. But my naive teenager self really believed it!
First off, welcome back from vacation, Anne! Second, I don't think your text about the rubber band ball was too weird. Honestly, it can never get weird enough, but that's just me, I guess.
OK, this Friendster interview with Ryan was great! And nostalgic! I remember that I liked my Friendster account. It was nice to see some basic info about my friends and their friends, but it was also nice because I don't think anyone took it too seriously. So even though Friendster was my first social network, it didn't feel weird to put this info online or creepy to read about your friends. In a strange way, Friendster might've been the most organic platform ever, or maybe I was just naive. Regardless, I was friends with Pizza The Hut, and that made me happy because it had always been my dream to befriend a Spaceballs reference.
Anyway, I eventually left Friendster for MySpace, where I learned about all the shitty bands in my social network. I figured Friendster was just dead, but somewhere around 2007 or 2008, I was working as a trade reporting covering ad tech, and I got pitched by Friendster PR. I couldn't believe it! I ended up meeting with the Friendster people at a conference. They kept trying to get me to write about how they were a huge gaming social network in Asia, and I kept trying to get them to resurrect my old account and tell me what happened to Pizza The Hut. I don't think I ever filed a story on Friendster, but if I had, it would've appeared on a website that went out of business somewhere around 2017. Thanks for the nostalgia and the insight on this one, Anne & Ryan!
Thanks for writing, Anne!
Friendster - no idea it even existed. The transparency of info sounds like fun. To that note, I think there’s a new wave of social media thinking being born out of Gen Z’ers (would love to know other Gen Z’ers opinions as well):
Although I’m not active on BeReal, the success of its concept makes sense. As Gen Z’ers, we’ve tried the 9 different profiles, deleting pictures that don’t get enough “likes”, restarting accounts, etc.. The new fun is just simply saying, “Here I am! This is me! Take it or leave it!”
I could see this trend continuing, and Broderick may be right: maybe Friendster was just ahead of its time.
One aspect of Friendster's death that I've never seen discussed is that it was awash with fake profiles -- not to trick anyone, but to amuse others! You could pretend to be a ham sandwich and have exchanges with dozens of other people/sandwiches: it was great. But Friendster wanted to primarily be a hook-up site (ala the long forgotten Nerve) and started swatting down the satire and parody profiles, which caused a lot of anger amongst users, who then began abandoning the site. I'm convinced that if it had instead just instituted some moderate limits -- no fake celebs, etc -- it would have thrived for a lot longer.
I ate at Teany (I still crave that peanut butter bomb cake. Sigh.) and had a RAZR flip phone (so cool) and whilst I didn't date Moby, I did interview him a couple of times, but I have no recollection of Friendster! But I now feel like I missed out on some fun times! Maybe you can bring it back!
I remember being on Friendster in college! And being friendsters with all my friends in college! And having SO MUCH ANXIETY about what to write in the "About Me" and "Who I Want to Meet" sections. I am also really struck by/surprised by the idea that being yourself online is passé. Whoah.
Okay so first off thanks for making me feel like I missed out on making out with Moby while everyone else was doing it. Second, I don’t think your text was weird. Weird would be putting the rubber balls on all your friends’ shrines and sending photos as they travel around. You know, like the yard gnomes in “Amelie”… (BTW if you wanna do it, I’ll make room on my shrine 😂) And thirdly, thank you for the Friendster flashback. I refused to join because at the time I was convinced the whole idea of having online interaction with your friends no less was utterly idiotic. Like why can’t we just call each other?! Then I wasted a few years on Facebook instead 🙄 I do vibe with your comment below, maybe we have to come full circle - from real profiles, to carefully “branded” profiles, to multiple profiles that are all mostly fake, to get back to a place where social networking can be a delightful way of keeping in touch with actual close circles - minus the constant ad noise, the unsolicited opinions of relative strangers, the anger, the FOMO generated by perfectly staged photos of “oh just another day at the beach” etc. The Friendster profile pic looks so quaint. I guess I’m nostalgic for a platform I was never even part of!!! 😂
Do you think there are other doormen/door people who create rubber band balls? Could be an Instagram account!
I was in chat rooms as a preteen before going to BlackPlanet and briefly MySpace. Friendster seems like it was too old for me at the time. I went to Tumblr for a while and let that go dark. It’s so interesting to see social media graveyards and the people we were while we were on them.
hi! i got here via garbage day and just wanted to say how much i enjoyed the writeup, but the rubber band story too. i have my own rubber band ball - as a kid i loved on pee-wee's playhouse when he would bring out the rubber band ball or the foil ball to add a new piece and see how big it had gotten. fond memories!
i never joined friendster - i think my first social media (beyond AIM/ICQ/MSN and email) was deadjournal, and then i switched over to livejournal. back then for both sites you needed to have an invite from a current user to join. i still have my livejournal and may go back to it. i did eventually join myspace, because i could not join facebook. when facebook first came out, you needed a college email address to join and i went to a small art school that did not have such a thing. also around that time i joined what i think was called melo, short for melodramatic. as i recall everything was a lavender color, and it was basically like myspace except i used to post embarrassing poetry there, and i think they had some kind of point system with a lot of sexual innuendo, like getting points for popping someone's cherry, i.e. being the first to post on their page etc. i wish i could remember what the points were called! anyway, fun trip down memory lane all around, thank you <3
I've seen a pattern where doormen get injured and then blame the injury on their job and then retire on worker's comp.
The sign in the laundromat seeking info on the dog-bed scofflaw reminds me of this sign for a found cat: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/775/the-possum-experiment/prologue-2
I was super obsessed with Ryze for a short while.