• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 26, 2009

The days of sending letters during the holidays to update friends and family about things that happen during the year has transformed into portals in social media platforms, according Angela Courtin, SVP marketing, entertainment and content at MySpace.

Good morning. Welcome to MediaPost's OMMA Social. I'm here Monday morning in San Francisco with a room (standing-room only) full of your colleagues listening to Courtin talk about the convergence of social media during the keynote "How We Learned to Listen & What We Do With What We’ve Heard."

As use shifts to social media it's no longer a race to build a destination, but rather constellations, Courtin said. Three things MySpace has learned in the five years since being founded has been people want self expression, positive change and fun.

MySpace users want to become part of change. So the company gave members the ability to create unique fingerprints online such as music, giving people a way to share interests with friends and family. For instance, MySpace Music had 1 billion streams in the first 48 hours of the initial launch.

Courtin said you know social media continues to make an impact when the Catholic Pope and President Barack Obama launch separate MySpace pages, and Paris Hilton continues to blog daily and we still care about it.