MySpace was once the largest social media platform in the world. At its peak, it had 100 million accounts.
Users then abandoned it for Facebook, and the once popular site became the butt-end of jokes.
Despite the founder of the social media platform, Tom Anderson, abandoning it after it “died” in 2009 — when Facebook had more than double its users only two years after it was created, there are still people who use it.
Meet Kenneth Scalir, the subject of a Guardian article published on Wednesday and former minor reality TV celebrity who appeared on dating reality television shows in the 1990s and 2000s. He appeared on “Blind Date,” “Love Connection,” and “Singled Out.”
“I always hoped I’d get a girlfriend out of it, but it never really happened,” Scalir said.
While Scalir was unsuccessful in the reality TV dating game shows, he said that he continues to be on MySpace and it’s a “huge part” of his life. “I’ve met new people I otherwise wouldn’t have met and learned about new fashions and bands,” he said.
“It has given me so much joy,” Scalir said. “When I didn’t have a girlfriend or lovers, at least I had Myspace.”
Scalir added that MySpace was “real addicting” when describing his experience joining MySpace in 2004, six months after it launched in August 2003. (RELATED: Report: Facebook Is No Longer King Of Social Media)
Nowadays, The Guardian notes, Scalir’s interactions with people on the social networking site don’t come as often as he used to and most of the profiles from his 700,000 connections are deserted.
Scalir pointed out how women didn’t block him or delete his comments anymore. “I think it’s funny. I’ll leave comments and messages for girls who haven’t been on there for years,” Scalir said. “It’s almost like I’ve taken over a dead site.”
MySpace’s emptiness is a point of freedom for Scalir, telling The Guardian. “There are people on Facebook I don’t really want to deal with.”
Another avid MySpace user, Ray Maldonado, took to YouTube to ask people to join MySpace and says in the video below that his continued usage of MySpace is “more vital to [his] life now as it was in 2007.”
“I’ve never been a big fan of [Facebook]. I understand that it’s the norm to have that as your main platform for social media activity but it’s never been preferable to me,” Maldonado said.
MySpace users from the glory days will remember their very first friend on the site, Tom Anderson, who was everyone’s first friend on the site in its prime — that is, before Facebook launched, ending MySpace’s popularity, dominated social media, and subsequently destroyed everyone’s trust in social media. Anderson is no longer the default first friend on MySpace as of 2010.
Anderson sold MySpace to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2005 for $580 million.
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