Facebook "good", Myspace "bad"?

by Victoria Revay | June 25, 2007 at 10:14 am
1050 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments

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According to a six month survey conducted by Danah Boyd, a UC Berkley PhD student, users of MySpace and Facebook are divided by more than their musical preferences.  It seems users of both sites are also determined by their class status in society.  The research suggested that Facebook users come from wealthier homes and are more likely to attend college as opposed to MySpace users who end to get jobs right after finishing high school. Ms. Boyd also said that although defining class is more difficult in the US as opposed to other countries because it did not directly relate to income, social networks in a way serve as the barometer.  She said social networks are strongly connected to race, geography and religion, which can also translate to lifestyle choices and class.
Teens are using social network sites to build community and connect with their peers," she said. "And through it, they are showcasing all of the good, bad, and ugly of today's teen life.
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ryan
ryan
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:59 on June 25th, 2007

Victoria Revay, I'd be interested to read the full study because the nature and history of the sites is so different it's hard to make this comparison. Facebook was originally a site limited to US college students, and then was made available to certain corporations, then was opened to the world only this year. As such, in its essence until recently Facebook is limited to college students or people working in large companies so I question the fundamental conclusion. If, however, the study only looks at Facebook since it was opened to the general public than perhaps there is more substance to Boyd's conclusion.

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Dave Ward

This also helps explain the proliferation on MySpace of big, flashing GIF images of text saying things like "P1MP 4 EVA!" and "U R MY BIOTCH!" (Not to mention the near complete absence of grammar or a coherent sentence on MySpace.)

 

I wonder, which is the horse and which is the cart -- does MySpace attract stupid people, or does MySpace turn people stupid? 

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