One of our newest (and very talented) writers, Sarah Vetter, has recently added a well-written article on her love for Facebook. She goes into great detail as to why Facebook is better than its competition, and what it is that makes Facebook so appealing. Assuming that the competition she speaks of is MySpace, I regret to inform her that she's wrong.

Now, I don't want to give you the wrong impression, I'm not some sort of MySpace fan boy. In fact, I was originally reluctant to use MySpace a few years ago, but to say that it isn't the best networking site is flat-out wrong. It may not be the best for everybody, we all have different styles and tastes after all, but it is the best currently in mass use. I've tried Facebook, WAYN, and other "networking" sites, but they all seem basic and have no punch. Some people state that they don't like MySpace because of all the crazy profile pages, the intrusive music, and the "friend" requests by spammers. But the intrusive music has been resolved by MySpace in the past year, giving users the option to listen to music when visiting a friend's page or not having it play at all (of course, if the profile has a custom music player all bets are off). The crazy profile pages? Yes, some of them are horrible. But you can't blame MySpace for that. The site gives users the option to customize their pages, the fact that some people don't know how to use some basic html, or to find a decent site that can provide that html for them, shouldn't be a detriment to the site.

If I wanted a networking site without bells and whistles, and wanted to play "kung fu monkey" all day, then Facebook would serve me perfectly well. But I like options. Like Burger King, I like to have it my way. And if that means that I want my pictures to be on the right side of my profile instead of the left? Then MySpace is the place for me. It's interesting that Sarah would compare Facebook akin to a Mac, since I recently made the same comparison to a friend recently, although not in a positive way. Sure, people say that the Mac is a bit more dependable (although I hear Vista has fewer security risks than the Mac now), but what if I want to be able to customize the look of my computer, use popular software (and games), and spend less money in the process? A PC gives me options, while a Mac gives me fewer or none. And isn't that what we want - options? I can have a basic and uninteresting page on MySpace if I want to, just like Facebook, or I can choose to customize it and show my true personality with pictures, music, and flashing smiley icons that repeatedly say "hello" and "say something" when I move my mouse over them (seriously, as annoying as those ads are are, they're fun to act out a conversation with).

It's the spirit of personalization and realness of feelings that makes MySpace the top dog. As a friend recently told me, "I wish that I could have a top friend's list on my fridge for when friends come over. Mike brought chips and salsa? He's moving up a couple spots. Paul didn't bring anything? Guess who's moving down." Yes, changing the order of a list is childish and stupid, but the feelings behind the action are real, and more truthful than most other things we do or say. We get upset with friends and sometimes it's not always easy to express that. But with the top friends list on MySpace? Problem solved! And as is the case with all friends, a top friend to you may be a lower level friend to everyone else; so while Facebook is Sarah's #1 friend, it's definitely #2 on the global friends list.