Comparison of Online Communities: MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, MyCyberSpace and Xanga

Which Community is Better for Your Needs

Seventy-five million people between the relative ages of 14 and 60 have joined the internet phenomenon known as MySpace.  MySpace is what is referred to as an online community and the number of people registered with the community grows each day.

But what exactly is an “online community,” you might be wondering.  To summarize, an online community is a place where registered users create profiles about themselves, upload photos, keep in touch with friends and make new friends.  MySpace is not the only one of its kind, however, due in part to the media, it could possibly be the largest, next to those associated with internet services providers such as America Online or MSN. 

Other online communities include MyCyberSpace.com, Xanga, LiveJournal, and Facebook, just to name a few.  Each of these provide users with experiences and features slightly different than the one before it.  Each community offers users a chance to create a profile, asking them to provide similar information regarding their interests, personality, relationship status, occupation and much more.   Nearly all information provided can be seen by all users of the services, unless the account preferences have been set to “private” or “friends only.”  Users of MySpace, MyCyberSpace and LiveJournal are permitted to express their personalities in other ways such as utilizing both pre-made and custom color and design schemes (also referred to as layouts) and photo uploads.  With Xanga, users of the free service are limited in their customization options.  Xanga is the only one of the five to charge a fee to access certain customizable aspects of the site.  Facebook does not offer the opportunity for personalized layouts but does allow users to upload photos.