Paul Boutin has this piece in Slate today which has a superb title: A Grand Unified Theory of YouTube and MySpace. Boutin tackles something that’s been nagging at me too — why are arguably funny-looking and technologically boring (in comparison to the razzamatazz stuff found elsehwere) sites such as YouTube and MySpace so popular?
His deceptively simple answer: they’re easy to use and they don’t tell users what to do.
But the focus on the collaborative nature of these sites has been nagging at me. Sites like Friendster and Blogger that promote sharing and friend-making have been around for years with nowhere near the mainstream success. I’ve got a different theory. YouTube and MySpace are runaway hits because they combine two attributes rarely found together in tech products. They’re easy to use, and they don’t tell you what to do.
(And I love his characterization of the difficulties of using BitTorrent. “Given up on BitTorrent because it feels like launching a mission to Mars?” All these many months and I thought it was only me that had problems getting BitTorrent to work.)
Boudin writes well and persuasively but something is still missing. Lots of sites and places on the Internet are easy and flexible, but it’s just plain fascinating how so many people jumped on the MySpace train, for example, in such a short period of time.
Cynthia Brumfield at 6:41 PM|Comments(1)
The most on-point line of the Boutin story is the last line:
"The easier it gets to use, the less geeky the Net becomes, and the more it starts to look like real life."
I think there's a lot of simple sites out there that aren't all that popular. But, MySpace and YouTube nail reflecting back the reality of a generation. Folks over 30 (like me) try to analyze it. Folks under 30 just live it.
And, what they're living is a mashed-up, always-on, always communicating, always on display existence.
BTW, also notice that kids these days are not exactly dressing mod or preppy. Perhaps post-modern grunge? Long hair is in. Facial hair is cool. All of this is reflected back to us in the helter-skelter style of MySpace.
Posted by: Sean Garrett at April 28, 2006 8:53 PM
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