Teen recreates Myspace and everyone is in love with it

If you grew up with the internet, you probably had an account on Myspace, that is, the first-ever social networking website. Now, you have the opportunity to relive what can only be described as the emergence of social media. That is because 18-year-old An from Germany has coded a replica website that looks and feels exactly like Myspace. Named SpaceHey, the website allows you to perform all the same things you were able to on the original social networking site, including ranking your top eight friends. Although the teenager had never used Myspace himself, he wanted to recreate it as he felt there was no similar space to be as creative, VICE News reports.

"I was only a few years old when Myspace was popular," he explained in an email interview with the news outlet. "I never came to use Myspace. However, thanks to older friends and the internet, I heard a lot about it. I came to the conclusion that you can't find something like this nowadays, where everyone can be this creative." Therefore, he put what spare time he had during the pandemic to good use and coded the entire website from scratch. He waded through archived webpages, screenshots, and videos to make sure the website felt as authentic as possible to the original Myspace.

An officially launched SpaceHey on November 29 last year. Since then, 55,000 users from across the world have already joined. The teenager was not able to reveal exact demographics as he aims to collect as little data wherever possible so users of his website can have a more private social networking experience. This is, of course, quite different from existing social media platforms. One of SpaceHey's users is TJ, aged 32. He is a poet and used Myspace back in the day to share his writing.

"I randomly stumbled onto SpaceHey via Twitter," he told VICE News. "They were promoting some new ‘Myspace incarnate’ and, as someone who loves nostalgia, I was immediately interested. I hate Facebook and have been looking for a reason to, if not completely delete it, then certainly limit my time on there. Once I got here and saw the original Myspace vibe, I fell in love." While he did admit that the "shiny new toy" feeling of the social media website is wearing off, he continues to log onto SpaceHey multiple times a day and it is still his browser's homepage.

Kelly Chaos, a "self-described retired scene queen", is another millennial who has migrated to An's social networking site. She was an "influencer" on Myspace long before the internet had a term for folks who became famous on the internet. She even had 800,000 friends before her Myspace page was hacked. Chaos stated, "Myspace was a huge part of my life between 2004 and 2010. I was in high school when it started and it was a way for me to escape the bullying I endured as a teenager. I spent all my lunches in the library on Myspace." Chaos already has over 1,400 friends on SpaceHey and claimed that she had "experienced more love and support from people than [she has] in the last five years on all of my social media platforms combined."

Other, younger, users have joined SpaceHey after learning about it through platforms such as TikTok. For instance, 18-year-old Jess learned of Myspace from her parents and has been watching YouTube tutorials to learn how to "perfect her profile." She explained, "I love the idea of making your profile fit your personality and being able to meet new people with similar interests. Being able to learn how to code has to be my favorite part. I thought it was difficult but once you get the hang of it, the results are amazing!" If you would like to relive your glory days of Myspace, you can visit SpaceHey here.