CSI, Facebook, and Method Man

Apr 30, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News, Technology

Sounds like the intro to a joke eh? Bear with me, and I’ll tie these three together, and (try) to make a decent point.

I watched the latest episode of CSI last night (Las Vegas of course, New York doesn’t even register for me, and while Miami is ok, nothing beats the original). During the opening credits, I happened to catch ‘Guest Appearance – Method Man‘. Hmmm…ok, i thought. Given Mariah’s stellar screen debut, and Britney Spears’ oscar winning performance, I wasn’t expecting much from a Musician come actor (although, I did think that Eminem did a decent job in 8 Mile).

Well, shut my mouth, because Method Man (aka Clifford Smith) did an outstanding job. His role centered around a Vegas club owner who was serving a short 8 month sentence for a ‘weak ass weapons charge’. While he’s doing time, all hell breaks loose on the outside with a double homicide centering around the woman who raised him, a high priced prozy, a boatload of cash, and his baby mama. Method Man delivers an outstanding performance, completely believable, and never for a second did I think that he was pushing the boundaries of his acting ability. He’s even portrayed as the like-able criminal who stages a breakout, only to save the life of his future child, while never putting up a protest to return to jail after the scene plays out.

The Facebook tie in.

Ok, perhaps just because these are areas of interest to me, but this line jumped out at me like a red flag. During an initial interview with Captain Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) regarding the relationship between two of the female characters, Method Man is quoted as saying:

“…one minute, they’re sending each other cupcakes on facebook, the next, they’re trying to kill each other over a broken curling iron…”

After my initial chuckles died down, I got to thinking about this digital culture comment. Two years ago, this line might have been written a bit more like so:

“…one minute, they’re sending each other glitter tweety birds on myspace, the next they’re trying to kill each other over a broken curling iron…”

And while many others have already written about this topic, let me just put it here in writing; In 2007

“MySpace showed a yearly growth of 19 % Facebook grew at a rate of 125%.” – mybroadband.co.za

Clearly this facebook reference by Method Man (and respectively the CSI team of writers), is yet other subtle mention of what I’ve been preaching for a while now: Myspace is a dying horse.

Sure while myspace still enjoys a much higher share of eyballs, March 08 compete.com data puts Myspace at 68,339,999 visitors, with Facebook receiving 31,233,452 vistors (both figures based on US traffic only), the growth rate is the important factor to watch. In March 08, yet again, Facebook is the clear winner with a 9.3% growth rate, Myspace, 3.9%.

While I’m not sure that Facebook is ever going to overtake the eyball count that News Corp.’s Myspace has, in my opinion Facebook has already won the battle of cultural superiority. While Method Man/CSI’s cupcakes on Facebook reference was the first integration of Facebook that I’ve heard in a television series, I’d bet the farm that it won’t be the last.