For the last assignment, I bookmarked an article by Danah Boyd (2007) called Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace. It discussed the findings of an American "study" on the use of MySpace and Facebook by youth in regards to class division, status and societal values. Boyd (2007) provides that these two sites now reflect the social economic division, with “jocks”, “preps” and generally the wealthier and better educated hegemonic teens using Facebook, and the lower socio-economic, public schooled subaltern teens using MySpace.
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.
- Boyd (2007)
I think this study provides a good example of how social networking sites which are designed to connect people together can also become tools of exclusion. In connecting like-minded people, obviously some people are “left out” of the group, which in regards to, say, music subcultures may not be such an issue but when it comes to dividing “social classes” such as between the rich and the poor, the highly educated and the less educated, online social networking sites may be widening already existing divisions within society. I read an interesting blog today by a fellow KCB201er "Bec"that has a more detailed discussion about the negative aspects of social networking sites (specifically, Facebook) .
After reading Boyd’s article this it made me think, does this divide exist in Australia? Before attempting to answer this question, let's think about why people use online social networking sites.
According to Shenton and McNeeley (as cited in Flew,2004) people participate in online discussion for reasons such as
- the opportunity to develop friendships and relationships that would be difficult to form “offline”
- the ability to play with personas
- to share new ideas with the like-minded
- find people with similar interests, no matter how weird or wacky these interest may seem to others
- chance to develop romantic or sexual relationships
- the freedom for those marginalised or persecuted by society to express opinions and spread opinions in ways unavailable through mainstream media
Flew(2004 ) nicely sums up the situation by stating that online participation reflects a dissatisfaction with the restrictions of “real world” communities.
So now we know why people turn to online discussion, what are some other reasons as to why people use MySpace and Facebook specifically?
To share photos
Blog
Create and invite people to events
General catch up and chit chat
Listen to music
Find out information eg. Tour Dates, Music Release Dates
Snoop on others
Gossip
Procrastinate
To publicly fight with people
(And I’m sure you can think of many others)
And what are some differences between Facebook and Myspace?
MYSPACE
Made for high school+ market
Open to all
Could say it’s more for adding friends and randoms
Can pimp yo page
Block or accept friend requests
FACEBOOK
Made for college/university (educated and elite)
Originally built on exclusivity
Have more professional groups (employers,employees etc)
One scheme fits all
Block, accept or allow access limited content
We’ve all heard that Facebook is increasing in popularity, with some electing Facebook as their first online social networking experience and other users leaving MySpace to join Facebook instead. Is it a phase or is it reflective of something deeper? In Australia I think that such a clear divide between users as in America does not exist, but maybe there is, it just hasn’t been uncovered yet. If there were to be a divide, I think “music lovers” and bands would use MySpace, to advertise their band, listen to songs etc. I also think younger users would prefer MySpace just for design reasons. For those at university or living on colleges, I think Facebook is definitely if not a preference, “the done thing”. Admittedly, I’m more of a MySpace fan just because you can “pimp your page” rather than the information based layout of face book and I like to hear the songs on people’s profiles and that’s pretty much it. Most, if not all of my friends have both accounts and in lil ‘ole Cairns I don’t think there is that a big gap between the educated and the workers, the high, middle and low classes. I think in Cairns the division is more of a digital divide nature, with those who have frequent access to the internet and those who have limited access or none at all. It will be interesting if Australian online social networkers will form a divide between Facebook and MySpace depending on social class or standing, whether the divide will be for different reasons or if there will even be a “divide”.
Flew,T. (2004). Virtual Cultures.In T. Flew. New media:an introduction. (pp.61-82). Melbourne:OUP.
Boyd, D. (2007). Viewing American class divisions through facebook and myspace. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html
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.
- Boyd (2007)
I think this study provides a good example of how social networking sites which are designed to connect people together can also become tools of exclusion. In connecting like-minded people, obviously some people are “left out” of the group, which in regards to, say, music subcultures may not be such an issue but when it comes to dividing “social classes” such as between the rich and the poor, the highly educated and the less educated, online social networking sites may be widening already existing divisions within society. I read an interesting blog today by a fellow KCB201er "Bec"that has a more detailed discussion about the negative aspects of social networking sites (specifically, Facebook) .
After reading Boyd’s article this it made me think, does this divide exist in Australia? Before attempting to answer this question, let's think about why people use online social networking sites.
According to Shenton and McNeeley (as cited in Flew,2004) people participate in online discussion for reasons such as
- the opportunity to develop friendships and relationships that would be difficult to form “offline”
- the ability to play with personas
- to share new ideas with the like-minded
- find people with similar interests, no matter how weird or wacky these interest may seem to others
- chance to develop romantic or sexual relationships
- the freedom for those marginalised or persecuted by society to express opinions and spread opinions in ways unavailable through mainstream media
Flew(2004 ) nicely sums up the situation by stating that online participation reflects a dissatisfaction with the restrictions of “real world” communities.
So now we know why people turn to online discussion, what are some other reasons as to why people use MySpace and Facebook specifically?
To share photos
Blog
Create and invite people to events
General catch up and chit chat
Listen to music
Find out information eg. Tour Dates, Music Release Dates
Snoop on others
Gossip
Procrastinate
To publicly fight with people
(And I’m sure you can think of many others)
And what are some differences between Facebook and Myspace?
MYSPACE
Made for high school+ market
Open to all
Could say it’s more for adding friends and randoms
Can pimp yo page
Block or accept friend requests
Made for college/university (educated and elite)
Originally built on exclusivity
Have more professional groups (employers,employees etc)
One scheme fits all
Block, accept or allow access limited content
We’ve all heard that Facebook is increasing in popularity, with some electing Facebook as their first online social networking experience and other users leaving MySpace to join Facebook instead. Is it a phase or is it reflective of something deeper? In Australia I think that such a clear divide between users as in America does not exist, but maybe there is, it just hasn’t been uncovered yet. If there were to be a divide, I think “music lovers” and bands would use MySpace, to advertise their band, listen to songs etc. I also think younger users would prefer MySpace just for design reasons. For those at university or living on colleges, I think Facebook is definitely if not a preference, “the done thing”. Admittedly, I’m more of a MySpace fan just because you can “pimp your page” rather than the information based layout of face book and I like to hear the songs on people’s profiles and that’s pretty much it. Most, if not all of my friends have both accounts and in lil ‘ole Cairns I don’t think there is that a big gap between the educated and the workers, the high, middle and low classes. I think in Cairns the division is more of a digital divide nature, with those who have frequent access to the internet and those who have limited access or none at all. It will be interesting if Australian online social networkers will form a divide between Facebook and MySpace depending on social class or standing, whether the divide will be for different reasons or if there will even be a “divide”.
Flew,T. (2004). Virtual Cultures.In T. Flew. New media:an introduction. (pp.61-82). Melbourne:OUP.
Boyd, D. (2007). Viewing American class divisions through facebook and myspace. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html
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