First let me say that my website is by no means a top tier site. I don't even get enough traffic to have an Alexa traffic ranking. However, I think that there is still something to be said about having your own website instead of just a MySpace or Facebook presence.
Back in the '90s having your own website was a geek badge of honor. 10 years ago it was unlikely that if you asked ten 16 year-olds to give an html tag that more than a couple would have been able to. Now, it is probably likely that most 16 year-olds would know at the very least the ‹a href› or ‹img› tags.