Why I I’m Grateful for Myspace

Halo 3 was our game of choice back then

It was March 15th 2010. I was sixteen and the definition of a teenage introverted gamer. That is, my days were often filled with hours of gaming with just a little bit of school and maybe some homework thrown in. While gaming I would almost always be in chat parties with my friends from school. We would game and talk for hours, often until late into the night leaving us tired during school the next day.  

It was during one of these gaming sessions that I heard some news that changed my life forever.

I had known most of these guys for 5+ years, first meeting them around early middle school. One however, I had known the longest, ever since I had moved to Anthony halfway through the second grade.

His name was Austin and he was the closest thing I had to a brother that wasn’t actually blood related to me. We became friends the first day I started at school, as he was the person assigned to help me get adjusted to the school and classes, etc.

Throughout the years, we were almost like yin and yang. He was the boisterous comic constantly making jokes while I was the calm and nerdy person that would laugh at the jokes. 

Going to a school dance in middle school.

He had an undetected acute heart condition that got worse with excessive stress, like exercise. Had it been detected he would have known not to join any school sports. Unfortunately, without this knowledge he joined the school baseball team, and seemed to do great for a quite a while. However, during one practice he had trouble breathing.

Taking a break on the bench in order to catch his breath, he collapsed. Ambulances were called, but he passed on the way to the hospital. One of my gaming buddies was there, and the first thing that he did after everything happened was get on the gaming chat to let the rest of us know.

The next few weeks were a blur. I remember going to his wake, and being one of his pallbearers at his funeral. Part of the grieving process had me desperately trying to salvage any remnants of him, whether it was video memories or his handwriting to get a tattoo in remembrance. It was then that I remembered that he had a Myspace profile.

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Austin never had a Facebook account (this was around the time when Facebook was barely gaining traction). Instead it was a Myspace profile, and like most people our age he customized it extensively. He had a custom background, images (Seinfeld everywhere), even a custom music playlist.

He also had a “Top 8”, where you would rank your top closest friends which would then be displayed on your public profile. It consoled me during that time knowing that I was his top friend.

People often write Myspace off as some failure of a social network that was never as good as the greats like Facebook or Twitter, and I will always disagree with them. Of course near the end of its lifespan it didn’t innovate enough in order continue to thrive, but during its prime it was a very important part of a majority of people’s social life. It allowed you to truly create a profile that was your own, that had your personality.

Social networks nowadays don’t really do that. You have to follow the same white and blue template that everyone else has while only being able to change small things like cover or profile photos.

Even with its many incarnations since then, I’m grateful that they haven’t deleted inactive profiles. Almost 6 years later I still find myself logging on to my old profile and reminiscing about how life was like back then.

All of the late night gaming and talking sessions, and just remembering what it was like to be a kid without much worries and just having fun. I will always remember the best friend I had throughout most of my time at school. With MySpace’s help, that process gets a little bit easier.

Myspace has drastically changed nowadays to compete with Facebook, but I'm glad they kept the Top 8!