MySpace now a “digital ghetto” • Hacker News Board

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#61

Post by Kadin » Fri, Jul 03, 2009, 4:42 PM UTC

calambrac wrote: post #19

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…

Which is why it's that much more disturbing that the separation is taking place anyways.

Is it really surprising, though?

I can think of lots of situations where people self-segregate along economic or cultural lines, without much in the way of external pressure to do so. I'd imagine it has a lot to do with viewing oneself as part of a group, and wanting to spend time with people whose interests and background are similar, have similar values, etc.

I'd think this is something that academics have studied already; it shouldn't come as a great surprise that when people are released into some new environment they gravitate towards others similar to themselves.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#62

Post by Tichy » Fri, Jul 03, 2009, 5:15 PM UTC

Kadin wrote: post #59

Tichy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" 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." So you are saying that black MySpace users tend to have a bad taste in colors and music, and therefore the white users leave? Whereas surely white users only create tasteful…

MySpace sucks because it gives users far more control than they ought to have over their pages. Facebook maintains high quality and a coherent feel by realizing that most people couldn't design their way out of a paper bag, and only giving users very basic, high-level control over their page. IMO, everything flows from that. MySpace feels like Geocities: total amateur hour. Even if you had the exact same group of peo…

I thought it was a given that MySpace is the epitome of ugliness. So my point was, maybe the "migration" has just the superficial reasons of ugliness and suckiness, not the huge society-psychobabble reasons.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#63

Post by philwelch » Fri, Jul 03, 2009, 6:33 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #60

philwelch wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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 To be fair, that's mostly dependent on the sort of company you keep, and you can turn off the notifications for all that sort of stuff anyway - it makes FB actually usable :)

I know, I just thought it was a lot better before it became a platform for third party apps, and when it had built in features that were useful to the college student core community (like registering which classes you had and searching for other students in your section).

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#64

Post by kragen » Fri, Jul 03, 2009, 7:10 PM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #41

kragen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

First, Upper-Class Chad uses MySpace. Later, he switches to Facebook, but he doesn't delete his account. His acquaintance Lower-Class Rodney is his friend on MySpace. Rodney worked as a line manager for a construction firm until getting laid off a few months ago. Rodney still only uses MySpace, because Chad didn't post on MySpace about Facebook. Chad links to all his upper-class friends on Facebook; many had never joined MySpace in the first place. If Rodney were on Facebook, he would occasionally interact with them, but he doesn't. He also doesn't see when Chad updates his Facebook status to say that his dad's company is looking for experienced line managers in their bill-collection firm.

That's the sense in which social stratification denies opportunities, whether it's manifested through YASNSs or other means.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#65

Post by Tichy » Fri, Jul 03, 2009, 9:00 PM UTC

kragen wrote: post #64

Tichy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

First, Upper-Class Chad uses MySpace. Later, he switches to Facebook, but he doesn't delete his account. His acquaintance Lower-Class Rodney is his friend on MySpace. Rodney worked as a line manager for a construction firm until getting laid off a few months ago. Rodney still only uses MySpace, because Chad didn't post on MySpace about Facebook. Chad links to all his upper-class friends on Facebook; many had never jo…

But access to Facebook isn't denied to Rodney, and why would Chad not add him as a friend on Facebook, too?

I am also not friends with everyone on Facebook, so I guess a lot of opportunities are denied to me (because Chad doesn't tell me about the job offers either). It's a cruel world.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#66

Post by kragen » Sat, Jul 04, 2009, 4:00 AM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #65

kragen wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, Upper-Class Chad uses MySpace. Later, he switches to Facebook, but he doesn't delete his account. His acquaintance Lower-Class Rodney is his friend on MySpace. Rodney worked as a line manager for a construction firm until getting laid off a few months ago. Rodney still only uses MySpace, because Chad didn't post on MySpace about Facebook. Chad links to all his upper-class friends on Facebook; many had never jo…

But access to Facebook isn't denied to Rodney, and why would Chad not add him as a friend on Facebook, too? I am also not friends with everyone on Facebook, so I guess a lot of opportunities are denied to me (because Chad doesn't tell me about the job offers either). It's a cruel world.

Yeah, danah points out that even though there isn't an economic reason for the segregation, it's happening anyway.

Re: MySpace now a “digital ghetto”

#67

Post by Tichy » Sat, Jul 04, 2009, 8:07 PM UTC

kragen wrote: post #66

Tichy wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But access to Facebook isn't denied to Rodney, and why would Chad not add him as a friend on Facebook, too? I am also not friends with everyone on Facebook, so I guess a lot of opportunities are denied to me (because Chad doesn't tell me about the job offers either). It's a cruel world.

Yeah, danah points out that even though there isn't an economic reason for the segregation, it's happening anyway.

Wouldn't the most likely explanation simply be that the connections on social networks tend to mirror connections in real life? I think there was a study posted to HN recently that basically said instead of connecting to everyone and their dog, connections tend to stay local.