MySpace: Bad Design, Worse Security

Never in my life, have I had a MySpace account. This assignment singlehandedly ensured that I never will.

While there’s a lot to be said about MySpace as a social networking site, I’m going to jump on the hater bandwagon and rant about a few elements I found particularly nauseating during my profile-hopping escapade.

First, the design of account layouts made my eyes hurt. The customization MySpace offers users – while providing an illusion of individuality – allows for cluttered nightmares complete with tacky color schemes and overdone backgrounds that distract visitors from text. Not only is content difficult to read, it’s also a struggle to find. Unlike Facebook’s standardized approach, MySpace users’ ability to tailor content placement creates profile inconsistencies that lead to less efficient information searches.

All this being said, in many cases customization is the only element protecting users from unwelcome visitors. Although MySpace has safety and security options available to protect privacy, most of the profiles I stumbled across were completely open. The profiles that were closed to at least some degree generally belonged to adults over 30. Alarmingly, teens boasted the most accounts with absolutely zero safety precautions in place, when this demographic of minors should be the most protected.