Facebook vs MySpace: Battle of the Generations?

(Originally posted on the website Heron Flight)

My 20-something-year-old daughter says that Facebook is for “old” people.

Thems fightin’ words, girl!

First off, who you calling old? ME? Ha! That will be the day! Though I am 40-something I don’t intend to get any, to use your term, “older.” Yes, I said that when I was 20-something and again at 30-something. But I mean it this time! If I believe it hard enough it has to come true. The fountain of youth right here in my own mind. Ageless. Eternal. Trans-generational. There are young people. There are old people. And there is ME. Smart. Funny. Handsome as a jackrabbit. (?) And COOL.

Therein is the end of the argument. Face it. Facebook is way COOLER than MySpace. It’s sleek. It’s clean. It’s easy. It’s spiffy and state of the art. MySpace is… well, the last time I logged in there all I heard were crickets and distant echoes of past comments and bulletins. Old crusty profiles of people who have moved on to bigger and better. Facebook, baby, Facebook.

One of the cool things about Facebook is that I have reconnected with several past friends, people from high school (who will also kick your tushie if you call them old), people I regretfully lost touch with but now have found again.

Ah! But there is the proof of your argument, you say! “Facebook is where old people hook up with all their old high school pals. It started out as a website for college kids. But the old people took it over.” Well, sweetheart, guess what? Half your girlfriends on MySpace are now MY friends on Facebook! And I don’t have to worry about ranking them and rankling their feelings. We’re all equal friends here. Ageless and eternal. That’s right, Daddy’s friends with your friends. Daddy writes on their walls. And they write back.

But I guess you didn’t notice cause you’re still MySpacin’ over there. Was that a tumbleweed blowing through your profile? Knowing a better thing when you see it ain’t being old. It’s just, like I said, COOL. It’s time to upgrade, kid!