June 25, 2007
Social Networking and a New Digital Divide?
By the time they get to college, many students already have pledged allegiance to one of the two social-networking giants — Facebook and MySpace. (Plenty of young men and women have profiles on both sites, but even most of those students check one site more than the other.)
How do students choose between the two social networks? The sites’ designs and privacy settings might play a role, but Danah Boyd of Apophenia argues that the real divisions between young users of Facebook and MySpace seem to be coming along social and class lines. Ms. Boyd says it’s now possible to create rough stereotypes of what typical Facebook and MySpace users are thought to look like:
The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other “good” kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college…. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after-school activities.
MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, “burnouts,” “alternative kids,” “art fags,” punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn’t play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools.
Obviously there are plenty of students who don’t neatly fit into one of these two categories. But Ms. Boyd’s argument is an interesting one: Have any campus administrators noticed a social-networking class divide? —Brock Read
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Then there are the older people (25+) who belong to Friendster because Facebook and MySpace came along after they graduated from college.
— Class of 2003 Jun 26, 07:39 AM #
A higher number of graduate students, especially those in the Arts and Sciences, seem to use Livejournal.
— Amanda Jun 26, 08:16 AM #
Thought this was interesting JT.
— Sarah Latham Jun 26, 08:22 AM #
I’m over 30. What’s this “facebook” and “myspace” thing you all are talking about?
— Lance Jun 26, 08:27 AM #
As a college Facebook user, I have to say that I’ve definitely noticed trends in the two sites. Facebook is much more tame and playful; it’s not something people think poorly of. MySpace, however, is riddled with pornographic poses of barely-legal girls all posing and dressing alike. Not to mention that I have to listen to someone else’s poor choice in music if I visit a site (which I don’t).
— Gabrielle Jun 26, 09:21 AM #
Facebook originally required a college e-mail address to create a profile and your social “network” was limited to your school. Just recently did they open it up to anybody and including social networks by geographical region and workplace. This is probably one of the major factors in the class divide between myspace and facebook.
And, as a myspace and facebook user (primarily facebook), I will agree with Gabrielle who posted earlier that it is nice not to have to see pictures of half naked girls trying to sell porn when I am on facebook.
— Kristin Jun 26, 09:34 AM #
I am not at all convinced that all of those categories being described correlate with class. For example, “art fags”, “alternative kids”, emos, goths and queer kids? I attended an expensive alternative high school in an affluent suburban area with approximately 75% of the student body fitting one of those descriptions or another. This was before Facebook or MySpace, of course, but the social groupings were essentially the same and in no way representative of class. If anything, I would expect the opposite correlation in these particular identity groups.
But of course you will find class differences between the users of FaceBook and MySpace. It’s not based on social groupings or mainstream- versus alternative-orientations, it has to do with the fact that FaceBook started as a college networking site and has only relatively recently even been open to individuals not enrolled in college. Even though there are now networks for cities and high schools, Facebook is centered around college life. And, as we all know, kids whose families have more money are far more likely to make it to college. The people I know who use MySpace come from a variety of class backgrounds, but none are college attendees and few are college graduates. They participate in an urban social scene that is simply divorced from academia. And there are plenty of “alternative” people on Facebook, but they tend to be associated with academia as well (since when are these two ideas incompatible, anyway?) So yeah, class is an issue, but it’s not about the “good” kids versus (what are presumably in contrast) “bad” kids.
— l. Jun 26, 10:17 AM #
I think we can categorize this divide at a higher level: those who waste their time preening their vanity and collecting “friends” on Facebook and MySpace, and the rest of the world that actually has a life.
— Marci Jun 26, 02:34 PM #
Regarding comment #8:
I find it really disturbing that you would refer to people who use either Facebook or myspace as having no life or wasting their time preening their vanity. I happen to use both of these sites in order to keep in touch with family, friends, and former students. It is a useful tool for keeping in touch. I only have people friended who I know in person and my profiles are private so that I can choose who DOES friend me and read my personal information.
— C Jun 26, 04:12 PM #
There was “study” that appeared in the news today that people aren’t loyal to one or the other. I don’t know if that’s a higher element in Facebook, or merely the appearance of such. I suspect many people have profiles in both places, and others as well. I suspect this is just a casual observation. It’s not based on reality, merely observation and anecdote.
— Carlo Jun 26, 04:52 PM #
Where do we go after we graduate from university? You can count on LiveJournal to attract graduate students and those who have matured and “graduated” from myspace or Facebook
— cheekymonkey Jun 27, 12:17 AM #
What happens to those of us who started college early (took colleges classes starting at 12, and started attending full time when we were 16 or so), plan on taking a break to learn about the world before fitting ourselves neatly into some, hopefully less than boring, 9-5 job? Oh yeah, and what if we’re queer too? I’m just saying it seems silly to base a profile that I only made in order to play around with programming CSS and HTML (MySpace) or to message people when email failed and it was important (Facebook). If you’re going to make such grandiose claims, perhaps you should consider doing a real study instead. For instance, does the ratio of the “punks, emos, queers” et al. to the rest of the population on either site deviate from the “real world” ratios, to the point of being statistically significant?
— Q, HS class of 2004 Jun 27, 10:42 AM #
^ ^ ^ #12, what are you talking about!?! If you are taking classes at age 12, great – good for you. Who cares what social networking site you use? I don’t understand your point at all. Perhaps you need to rephrase it in a less holier-than-thou way.
— Scott Jun 28, 08:53 AM #
I didn’t know FaceBook or MySpace had anything to do with being in college at all. I’m 47 years old, have a MySpace and use it to keep in touch with my friends and family. It’s a great way to veiw their family photos!
— Sue Jun 28, 11:03 AM #