Ingrid Dahl Response

Dahl presents some solid ideas and thoughts concerning the use of MySpace and Youtube in relation to youth activism. Unfortunately, many of her ideas are A) already out of date or B) have been said a million times before.

To say that MySpace is still considered an important tool is to totally forget about Facebook, which has taken over MySpace's power tenfold. If you ask the youth of today about MySpace, guaranteed they will laugh and say they haven't used it in a few years. Groups and businesses have shifted their entire online precense to MySpace. In order to become as relevant as it was, MySpace should totally rebrand their site and change a lot- right now it's very confusing and noisy. As a joke on "Saturday Night Live" recently went: 'MySpace is like the abandoned carnival park of the internet."

Dahl writes:

When in dialogue with youth about the fact that News Corporation, owner of Fox broadcasting channels and other major media outlets, owns and operates MySpace, many youth frown upon the news. Nevertheless, this does not stop them from usingMySpace as an accessible tool of connecting, researching, and mobilizing their communities.

I think this is off the mark as well. If Dahl is trying to say that youth today get their news from social networking sites, I would have to disagree. They definitely use it to rally others and get the word out about various issues, but to compare MySpace to FoxNews is a big stretch.

It'd be interesting to see what Dahl would have said if that article were written yesterday. I would bet she'd at least changed the title of it to include Facebook as well.

Thanks!