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MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

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Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#21

Post by InkweaverReview »

calambrac wrote: post #15
sharpn wrote: post #2

Utter nonsense. Overlaying a racist agenda onto the shift from Myspace to Facebook is ridiculous. Neither have any barier to entry. Abandoning Yahoo! for Google might also shadow the population changes the author alludes to, but does that make google users racist? No. EDIT: the new original link provides more reasoned context - but even then, the data appears very, very weak [~4 anecdotal data points, all 17-year-old…

First, read the actual article, not this poorly regurgitated bullshit ( http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html ). Second, recognize the fact that Danah Boyd does actual research and generally knows her shit. Third, understand that she specifically says that we wouldn't expect to see the problem because there's no barrier to entry, yet we do anyways, which makes it that much more disturbing.

Thank you for sharing the original article. It is considerably better than the article that was submitted.

I believe that the URL of this news item should be switched to point to the original paper.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#22

Post by motoko »

strlen wrote: post #10

That's an argument that's in a way true, but it's also a non-sequitir comparison: in order to live in a middle class suburb (or especially a middle/upper class section of an urban area, e.g. Pacific Heights in San Francisco) there's a very high monetary barrier to entry. There's no monetary barrier to entry for Facebook (especially since it's no longer just for college students-- which may have been the seedling of t…

Facebook once required an .edu email address, starting from #1 ranked Harvard, opening access gradually down university rankings until it was free for all people.

It's true that anyone can open a Facebook account now, but would be impossible to open a Facebook account with several years of accumulated use if you didn't attend these selected universities.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#23

Post by chaostheory »

There may be some basis for the racial argument, but in my opinion a lot of people weren't interested in MySpace because it used to be just a fancy online scrapbook. Before I joined Facebook, I had the wrong impression that it would be the same thing. Fortunately I was happy to find that Facebook wasn't a scrapbook, but instead some tool that lets you know the exact stuff people are doing, feeling, and thinking everyday by the hour. To me this was the main reason for the migration.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#24

Post by jgilliam »

abossy wrote: post #20

Isn't the reason behind this obvious? Facebook started out by targeting the Ivy League. Who is more likely to be upper-class and white than those whose social roots are at Harvard University? The restricted registration of Facebook, coupled with the importance of the network effect (making the site valuable only if you are already friends with educated Ivy League students) clearly dictates the direction of the site's…

MySpace started in Los Angeles, and its first users were mostly from the local club scene. Very big difference from the Ivy League.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#26

Post by tokenadult »

calambrac wrote: post #15
sharpn wrote: post #2

Utter nonsense. Overlaying a racist agenda onto the shift from Myspace to Facebook is ridiculous. Neither have any barier to entry. Abandoning Yahoo! for Google might also shadow the population changes the author alludes to, but does that make google users racist? No. EDIT: the new original link provides more reasoned context - but even then, the data appears very, very weak [~4 anecdotal data points, all 17-year-old…

First, read the actual article, not this poorly regurgitated bullshit ( http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html ). Second, recognize the fact that Danah Boyd does actual research and generally knows her shit. Third, understand that she specifically says that we wouldn't expect to see the problem because there's no barrier to entry, yet we do anyways, which makes it that much more disturbing.

"This quote provides the key to understanding the distinction between MySpace and Facebook. Choice isn't about features of functionality. It's about the social categories in which we live. It's about choosing sites online that reflect "people like me." And it's about seeing the "other" site as the place where the "other" people go.

" Anastasia (17, New York): My school is divided into the 'honors kids,' (I think that is self-explanatory), the 'good not-so-honors kids,' 'wangstas,' (they pretend to be tough and black but when you live in a suburb in Westchester you can't claim much hood), the 'latinos/hispanics,' (they tend to band together even though they could fit into any other groups) and the 'emo kids' (whose lives are allllllways filled with woe). We were all in MySpace with our own little social networks but when Facebook opened its doors to high schoolers, guess who moved and guess who stayed behind… The first two groups were the first to go and then the 'wangstas' split with half of them on Facebook and the rest on MySpace... I shifted with the rest of my school to Facebook and it became the place where the 'honors kids' got together and discussed how they were procrastinating over their next AP English essay."

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#27

Post by crux_ »

CaptainMorgan wrote: post #7

I'm with the initial commenter's: this is crap. What I find ironic and laughable at the same time is the article doesn't mention usability of the software deployed by the two sites and how that might actually factor in. Assuming it has a racial connotation is absurd. IMO, Facebook has a better interface, making it easier on the eyes, makes use of less ads, etc. etc. -- any part of that racial? I'd like to answer by u…

You should read the original, not the craptastic blog summary.

It does indeed mention the usability differences between the two sites, then goes on to discuss how the prime deciding factor between a teenager using one site or the other is rather: "Simply put, they go where their friends are."

Further it's not ascribing racist motivations to anyone's choice of social network, instead making the observation that, by going where their friends are, existing socio-economic divides are being perpetuated into social networks.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#28

Post by paul9290 »

Some of this maybe true...

I say this because in a marketing sense when you look the marketing cycle - innovators, early adopters, late adopters, early majority, late majority and early and late laggards you would see with new tech products that those who are economically challenged do not fall (they are not the majority) into the first two or three stages. It's more economic and educational status is the factor over race.

Also has anyone ever did a race poll here at Hacker News? I went to TechCrunch event and 95% of those in attendance were white dudes, while rest of percentage split between women and minorities. I'm not trying to inflame anything here but there is a huge disparity of the minorities this article speaks of in Silicon Valley.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#29

Post by jhickner »

Why do we pretend that it's some sort of virtue to be unconcerned with those we surround ourselves with? It's no virtue.

After all, why are we here on HN instead of Digg or Reddit? I'm sure a demographic analysis of that switchover would yield similar results.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#30

Post by dan_the_welder »

wayt wrote: post #3

I'm old enough to remember white flight. To make an analogy with MySpace migration to Facebook is absurd.

Yeah me too. About 5 years ago I moved from the warehouse district into an urban neighborhood, shortly after many of my bike punk friends followed.

I called us white blight.

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