Social Web's class divide

Facebook is more like the suburbs and MySpace the inner city, according to a Salon.com blogger’s interpretation of social media researcher danah boyd’s latest, fairly controversial paper on social networking. I think it’s controversial because, as an essay, it’s broad-brushed and uses teens’ own terms for their social groups, and because it’s based on danah’s qualitative research, not the quantitative kind of a sociologist (danah’s legal name is lower-cased). Note her liberal use of quotation marks: “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 part of what we'd call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. 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. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school….” Isn’t it interesting, danah and commentators point out (I think it is too), that people are categorizing themselves in cyberspace as well as in RL (“real life”)? Don’t miss what danah says about “good kids” vs. “bad kids” under “Thoughts and meta thoughts” at the end.

I actually think that the two social sites’ populations largely reflect their origins: Facebook was exclusive right out of the gate, having gotten its start at Harvard and then taking other college and university campuses by storm, only later broadening out. MySpace, which was about individuality and diversity from its start with 20-somethings, then teens, also reflected the inclusiveness of the music scene that it was so tied to. Facebook was about networking and limited in the customization it allowed; MySpace was whatever anyone wanted it to be, allowing almost any sort of customization (the two have moved closer together since and away from those very divergent starts). Here’s the BBC on danah’s essay.