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MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

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Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#41

Post by Tichy »

kragen wrote: post #36
jhickner wrote: post #29

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.

Well, because class stratification denies opportunities to people who are born to the wrong parents, drastically reducing the pool of innate talent that can actually be applied to solving society's problems, maybe. Or because lack of interchange between social groups brings those groups to misunderstand and fear one another, leading to violence between them (Japanese internment camps being an example inside the US in…

"debies opportunities" - seriously? I think everybody can sign up on MySpace or Facebook.

Though I suppose as a researcher you could have some fun by creating fake accounts with different profile pictures and start adding friends randomly.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#42

Post by Tichy »

pj wrote: post #35
_cbsz wrote: post #33

from original article: > The #1 predictor for how someone will side in issues of gay rights is whether or not they know someone who is gay. Why couldn't one conclude that the #1 predictor for whether or not someone will meet someone who is gay is how they side in issues of gay rights?

People meet each other before their thoughts on gay rights, or really any thoughts are known. I would say physical location would be more of an indicator of whether or not you'll meet someone gay. If you go to the Castro for example, it's much more likely you'll meet someone gay than if you are ... well, I dunno, somewhere there aren't a lot of gay people.

"If you go to the Castro for example, it's much more likely you'll meet someone gay"

No idea what "the Castro" is, but it sounds as if somebody who doesn't like gay people would be less likely to go there.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#43

Post by quoderat »

InkweaverReview wrote: post #21
calambrac wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I submitted the original several days ago. No upvotes, maybe due to the time I submitted it.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682172

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#44

Post by sbt »

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…

Agreed. The question is, what do they actually do at this Berkman Center? This analysis reminded me of a classmate who wanted to cast Shakespeare as an early marxist. Litterature students can make arguments for anything and the people behind this analysis should find something more meaningful to do with their life.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#45

Post by philwelch »

petercooper wrote: post #31

When Facebook first started becoming really popular (as in, internationally) I was very pro-Myspace exactly because of its "ghetto"-ness (not in the racial sense, but in terms of atmosphere). Facebook was dull and sterile, whereas MySpace had music, you could look at profiles of people who hadn't friended you, you could put crazy layouts on your profile, and.. well.. MySpace was just 101x more interesting. Thing is,…

Everyone thinks it's cool to live in a neighborhood where your neighbors blast hip-hop all hours of day and night until they have to sleep. Everyone thinks MySpace is cool until your browser crashes or slows down, or you strain your eyes reading yellow on orange, or you hear the first 3 seconds of some crappy hip hop song that clashes with what you already have playing on iTunes.

Sadly, Facebook isn't dull and sterile anymore. I can't spend a minute there without someone asking me to join their mafia or pushing some dumb "which care bear are you" quiz on me when I just want to chill out and exchange messages with my friends and comment on my fruit smoothie this morning.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#46

Post by termie »

philwelch wrote: post #45
petercooper wrote: post #31

When Facebook first started becoming really popular (as in, internationally) I was very pro-Myspace exactly because of its "ghetto"-ness (not in the racial sense, but in terms of atmosphere). Facebook was dull and sterile, whereas MySpace had music, you could look at profiles of people who hadn't friended you, you could put crazy layouts on your profile, and.. well.. MySpace was just 101x more interesting. Thing is,…

Everyone thinks it's cool to live in a neighborhood where your neighbors blast hip-hop all hours of day and night until they have to sleep. Everyone thinks MySpace is cool until your browser crashes or slows down, or you strain your eyes reading yellow on orange, or you hear the first 3 seconds of some crappy hip hop song that clashes with what you already have playing on iTunes. Sadly, Facebook isn't dull and steril…

I hear the argument about browsers blowing up on MySpace all over the interwebs, but it really depends on the company you keep, to some degree. In other words, they give people freedom and some pages are horrendous, but some people's profiles are interesting and really well designed.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#47

Post by dtf »

ubernostrum wrote: post #38
dtf wrote: post #14

I've always suspected Facebook was run by fascist white supremacists. How come you're not allowed to change your background colour from the prescribed white?! Seriously though, nobody leaves a social networking site because "it's overcrowded with blacks". You wouldn't even leave such a site if it was overcrowded with trolls and racists. It's not a forum or some shared community resource - you only ever interact with…

"Seriously though, nobody leaves a social networking site because "it's overcrowded with blacks". You wouldn't even leave such a site if it was overcrowded with trolls and racists. It's not a forum or some shared community resource - you only ever interact with your friends, and there's no such thing as overcrowding (as long as the servers keep up). The fail is strong in this report." Sigh. How do allegedly well-educ…

"Sigh. How do allegedly well-educated, intelligent, open-minded people end up jumping to conclusions like this?"

Who's alleging anything about being well-educated, intelligent or open-minded? Keep your prejudices at the door, thank you.

Seriously though, Boyd suggests "a modern incarnation of white flight". An incendiary accusation! What is "white flight" if not racism? "Oh no, don't get me wrong, I'm not a racist. I just want my kids to grow up in a neighbourhood with people of their own colour." Is she deliberately using that term to court controversy?

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#48

Post by calambrac »

enjo wrote: post #39
calambrac wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? The only difference was that white flight had a quantifiable cost barrier preventing minorities from leaving decaying inner cities as well. She's saying that this is disturbing because it's still happening, even without that financial barrier.

What if I reject the premise? I've yet to see a compelling argument as to why this type of self-selection is truly harmful. Why is it a problem if folks of similar culture choose to utilize the same tools? This idea that we should all live in close exposure to diverse opinion is nice, but goes against my basic instinct. I don't want to spend my time defending my cultural choices to folks who disagree. I don't need my…

The fact that you think close proximity to another culture involves spending all your time defending yourself proves the point to me...

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#49

Post by calambrac »

Tichy wrote: post #40

Somehow I never get to read real numbers from Dana Boyd. The only number is "... who has spent so and so many years of studying kids on social networks". I think she hit on one thesis that makes for good "linkbaity" newspaper articles and now she is milking it. In other words, it is marketing, not research.

The paper is a transcription of a talk. Email her, and I'm sure she'd be happy to send you numbers.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#50

Post by Tichy »

calambrac wrote: post #49
Tichy wrote: post #40

Somehow I never get to read real numbers from Dana Boyd. The only number is "... who has spent so and so many years of studying kids on social networks". I think she hit on one thesis that makes for good "linkbaity" newspaper articles and now she is milking it. In other words, it is marketing, not research.

The paper is a transcription of a talk. Email her, and I'm sure she'd be happy to send you numbers.

Since I am not researching the subject, I really don't want to bother her. But since that thesis has been around for quite a while now, surely she has published some papers somewhere?

It is just that I remember the original "article", which was just a blog entry (was it mnths ago, or years already?). But the press loved it and eventually what just was some musings in a blog became "scientific research" in the media - that is what I mean by linkbaity, it is just the kind of think newspapers love to write about. That is not Boyd's fault of course - it's just that after all that time, I would have expected to really see the blog article be turned into something more solid.

If she can make a living that way, also I don't have anything against it. I just felt it lacked substance for Hacker News.

Edit: these are her papers http://www.danah.org/papers/ - I tried one that sounded like it might contain numbers, but I didn't find many. Some words on methodology, though (for Friendster, but still). Anyway, her kind of research just is not my taste (too much talking).

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