Start narrowing down your Top 8 and finding a melodramatic song that speaks to your moment, because the platform that truly set the social media wave into motion \u2014 MySpace \u2014 is cresting for a comeback.<\/p>\n
MySpace was the website at the center of the millennial internet experience in the 2000s (115 million monthly visitors in 2008). It was defined by highly customizable HTML and vibrant profiles and personal profile songs, a somewhat juvenile \u201ctop friends\u201d list, \u201cduck face\u201d selfies, everyone\u2019s first friend \u201cTom,\u201d blogging and an emphasis both on interactions with close friends and offering a useful tool for finding new and obscure music at all levels.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2003, by 2006 MySpace was the most visited site in the U.S., before the \u201cmore mature\u201d perception of a then fledgling Facebook crashed the party in the late 2000s.<\/p>\n
Now, current brand owner Viant Technology \u2014 which became the platform\u2019s fifth leadership team as it rapidly faded from prominence in 2011 \u2014 is planning a detail-light return with its second relaunch attempt since 2013, it announced in the 2026 documentary \u201cMyspace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Millennials on the North Shore on Thursday were already waxing nostalgic.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an elder millennial mom, it was such a simpler time in my life in general, prekids, less worries. I feel like the world was simpler,\u201d said Alia Beaver, 38, of Bloomfield. \u201cSo I\u2019m excited for a little blast from the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her first question was echoed among those whose reactions ranged from raised eyebrows to instantaneously wide smiles: \u201cWill I have access to my original page?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to see what my page looked like, what songs that I had on there. I was full-blown coding at 17 years old, somehow,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cSo I would love to go back in time and see that exact profile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, that option won\u2019t be on the table if and when the reboot happens at a date still to be announced.<\/p>\n
The site never went away, but did eventually transform into a more barebones music and music news site. And in 2019, as an unintended result, the collective memory of a generation that uploaded content \u2014 ranging from bedroom-penned songs and storytelling blogs to inside joke-laden comments and transportive photos \u2014 prior to 2016 was erased in a server migration issue.<\/p>\n
For many, however, excitement about its return centers as much on what features its return might exclude as include.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcitement about MySpace\u2019s relaunch reflects nostalgia for a more analog time, when algorithms were less dominant in our lives,\u201d said Kate Winick, a principal analyst at Forrester, in a recent interview with CNBC<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing this in recent moves by both brands and users toward smaller, more private social experiences that feel less built for the algorithm and more personal to the individual user, like the explosion of growth on Substack and private communities on Discord.\u201d<\/p>\n