Study Task 06 - Rotation task - New Media Theory

Should we be so upset about the loss of MSN Messenger?

Posted by Liv Siddall, Wednesday 03 September 2014

This week Editor Liv Siddall addresses the world’s distraught reaction to the announcement that MSN Messenger will terminate after 15 years in operation, and wonders if we should get so nostalgic and wet-eyed over technology.

I often think about what the world’s headlines and Twitter feeds will be like when the Beanofinally holds up its little hands and admits defeat – there will be cries of outrage, people pointing fingers and mourning a lost nugget of their past. Problem is, none of these people ranting about it will have actually bought a Beano for about the last 20 years.

Similar feelings arose in me when I heard last week of the demise of MSN Messenger. The initial feeling of “NOOOO!” was soon overtaken by the incredulous realisation that it has actually still been going all these years – who the hell has been using it? I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of “remember how you used to put song lyrics as your profile name?” or, “remember when you used to sign in and out again so the person you fancied knew you were online?” – I’ll leave that to Buzzfeed.

What I do want to address though is that I am 25, and I’m pretty sure I was in “the” MSN Messenger generation. A lot of my friends and co-workers of a similar age have expressed sorrow and nostalgia for its demise which, if you think about it, is a bit weird. MSN Messenger was a basic, rather ugly tool that was hosted by Microsoft in order for you to chat online with friends pre-Facebook and everyone having a phone – it wasn’t a family member or a much-loved celebrity.

After probably not even thinking about it for a decade it seems odd for people to get riled up about something terminating. What it does hint at is the amount of people between 20 and 30 who are now starting to form serious bonds with technology having been breastfed by it as a teenager and then never actually weaned off it.

The BBC even got their technology reporter Dave Lee to write an obituary for MSN Messenger! As if it was a person. You’ve seen how inconsolable your friends are when they lose their phone, or worse an important file or entire digital music library. Are we getting a little too attached to technology? The turnaround of old and new tech is increasing incredibly fast – even the whole scrolling website format is getting stale and that’s only been going for a few months.

Should we be nostalgic for technology or should we just move with the times? MSN was a good friend once upon a time, but I probably wouldn’t bother meeting it for a pint now, or attending its funeral to be honest.

I've chosen to look at this piece about the termination of MSN because I was an avid user of it and understand what this article is trying to say. It is a new and weird occurrence to be emotional upset that something on your computer doesn’t work anymore.

     Social media is ever growing and becoming a more consuming thing in normal everyday society. The normality of taking a photo of something or someone and uploading it to the Internet for millions of people to see is a very new concept. Ten years ago, the normality was to take a photo, wait till the film ran out, get it developed, and put it in a book and not look at it for years. Now it’s pretty much the same apart from you take a photo and store it for the world to see and still not look at them for years. Since the Internet became so popular and new media was formed people lead a very public life. This is important to look at when designing for new media and understand what is appropriate. Social media is a very public thing, where as specific design blogs or website not really. Websites that are for viewing and not communicating can be private about certain information. With each new media format there is a new media audience. A lot of the time it can be very specific, a lot of non creative would not of heard of Creative Review even though it is a huge global website. New media depends on its audiences to make it work. MSN was understood and loved by many because it wasn’t specific it was convenient and useful.

     In new media there are a lot of different websites or apps etc for different people and their interests. Understanding this means it will help the design process of a website. It will ensure the correct audience is approached with useful and interesting information.