MySpace, Facebook, class distinction
p2pnet.net news:- There’s distinct class distinction between MySpace and Facebook, says Danah Boyd, a PhD candidate at the School of Information (iSchool) at the University of California – Berkeley and a Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Communications.
“What does it mean that our culture of fear has further divided a generation?” – she asks. “What does it mean that, in a society where we can’t talk about class, we can see it play out online? And what does it mean in a digital world where no one’s supposed to know you’re a dog, we can guess your class background based on the tools you use?”
Boyd blogs she’’s been “traipsing through the country talking to teens” for the past 6-9 months but is having a hard time putting her findings into words,” going on:
Americans aren’t so good at talking about class and I’m definitely feeling that discomfort. It’s sticky, it’s uncomfortable, and to top it off, we don’t have the language for marking class in a meaningful way. So this piece is intentionally descriptive, but in being so, it’s also hugely problematic. I don’t have the language to get at what I want to say, but I decided it needed to be said anyhow. I wish I could just put numbers in front of it all and be done with it, but instead, I’m going to face the stickiness and see if I can get my thoughts across. Hopefully it works.
For all of 2005 and most of 2006, MySpace was “the cool thing for high school teens” and Facebook, “the cool thing for college students,” says Boyd.
This isn’t to say MySpace is all high school or Facebook all college, “but there was a dominating age division that played out in the cultural sphere”.
Facebook “was framed as being about college”. So said the press, so said college students and on top of that, “the press coverage of MySpace as dangerous and sketchy alienated ‘good’ kids”. In short, Facebook, “seemed to provide an ideal alternative,” Boyd states, going on.
“Parents weren’t nearly as terrified of Facebook because it seemed ’safe’ thanks to the network-driven structure. (Of course, I’ve seen more half-naked, drink-carrying high school students on Facebook than on MySpace, but we won’t go there.)” But as the past school year progressed, “the division around usage became clearer” and she realized it was, “primarily about class” and the framing means, “there aren’t really good labels to demarcate the class divisions that do exist”.
With that in mind, Boyd uses admittedly “stereotypical, descriptive terms” to evoke an image, ie:
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 because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.
She also points out the us military banned MySpace, but not Facebook, and, “This was a very interesting move because the division in the military reflects the division in high schools,” she says. “Soldiers are on MySpace; officers are on Facebook.”
She says she’s often asked if she’s worried about teens today, and her answer is Yes, but not because of social network sites.
“With the hegemonic teens, I’m very worried about the stress that they’re under, the lack of mobility and healthy opportunities for play and socialization, and the hyper-scheduling and surveillance, she declares, adding:
I’m worried about their unrealistic expectations for becoming rich and famous, their lack of work ethic after being pampered for so long, and the lack of opportunities that many of them have to even be economically stable let alone better off than their parents. I’m worried about how locking teens indoors coupled with a fast food/junk food advertising machine has resulted in a decrease in health levels across the board which will just get messy as they are increasingly unable to afford health insurance. When it comes to ostracized teens, I’m worried about the reasons why society has ostracized them and how they will react to ongoing criticism from hegemonic peers. I cringe every time I hear of another Columbine, another Virgina Tech, another site of horror when an outcast teen lashes back at the hegemonic values of society.
I worry about the lack of opportunities available to poor teens from uneducated backgrounds. I’m worried about how Wal-Mart Nation has destroyed many of the opportunities for meaningful working class labor as these youth enter the workforce. I’m worried about what a prolonged war will mean for them. I’m worried about how they’ve been told that to succeed, they must be a famous musician or sports player. I’m worried about how gangs provide the only meaningful sense of community that many of these teens will ever know.
But it’s not all black thanks, to a degree, to technology, says Boyd.
“Teens are using social network sites to build community and connect with their peers. They are creating publics for socialization. And through it, they are showcasing all of the good, bad, and ugly of today’s teen life. Much of it isn’t pretty, but it ain’t pretty offline either. Still, it makes my heart warm when I see something creative or engaged or reflective. There is good out there too.”
She says she doesn’t have the language to “comfortably talk about what’s going on,” but believes, “the implications are huge,” as marketers, have already figured out.
They, “know who to market to where. Policy creators have figured this out – they know how to control different populations based on where they are networking.”
But what about social workers or educators?
“I don’t know where to go with this,” Boyd concludes, “but I wanted to get it out there. So here it is. MySpace and Facebook are new representations of the class divide in American youth.
“Le sigh.”
Also See:
blogs – Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace, June 24, 2007
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June 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
excellent observations on her part, be nice to hear/read some counter-points to get a better grasp of the situation but if her portrayal is accurate then class division seems to have crept in to net culture where one of the ’supposed’ benefits of said culture was equalization and an opportunity for anyone to voice their opinion.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
most of this may be true in some places but not all…… around here in my region of illinois…everyone has both your not “in” or cool if you dont have and use both