Online Inequality: The Facebook-MySpace Divide

Art by CrazyItalian503

Unlike most of my demographic, I am still and active MySpace user, spending most of my time on Facebook but occasionally switching between the two social-networking sites. In 2006, I created a Facebook account almost as a right-of-passage into the world of higher education. I only maintain my MySpace account to stalk my 14-year-old brother and to keep in touch with the select few friends who haven’t made the switch to Facebook.

As a regular at both Web sites, I have noticed a large disconnect between my Facebook and MySpace friends. When I first joined Facebook, all of my friends were college students (as the site originally intended). Now professionals, like real estate agents and friends’ parents, have hopped on the Facebook bandwagon, too.

However, when I go on MySpace I find that my friends’ list has a much different composition. Many of my MySpace friends are bands or musicians, since a large component of the site is music driven. Also, my brother and his middle-school buddies are all on MySpace, but not on Facebook. Surprisingly, many of my working-class friends from high school who stayed at home, didn’t attend major universities or have had children are also active MySpace users. I have even noticed that people who are active on both Facebook and MySpace display different information about themselves on each site. For example, I noticed that one friend’s MySpace default photo is of her and her newborn son, while her main photo on Facebook is of her partying with friends.

This left me wondering--is MySpace becoming the preferred networking site for working-class folk? Is Facebook for academic snobs?

Ethnographic researcher danah boyd noticed a similar trend. Boyd, a social media researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, has done extensive research on the attitudes youngsters have toward both sites, and has found that social networking is not the great equalizer but rather, an example of how pervasive inequality can be.

In a 2007 article titled “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace,” boyd writes that, “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 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.”

Boyd found a much different crowd of teens flocking to MySpace. She writes that, “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.”

In other words, MySpace is for losers and Facebook is for squares.

Boyd’s research on social networking is as astonishing as it is sad. According to the blog Cause Global: Social Media for Social Change, California 17 year old, Craig, told boyd:

“The higher castes of high school moved to Facebook. It was more cultured, and less cheesy. The lower class usually were content to stick to MySpace. Any high school student who has a Facebook will tell you that MySpace users are more likely to be barely educated and obnoxious. Like Peet’s is more cultured than Starbucks, and Jazz is more cultured than bubblegum pop, and like Macs are more cultured than PC’s, Facebook is of a cooler caliber than MySpace.”

Although seemingly thorough, boyd’s research only covers teen attitudes toward both sites; however, I am curious to see if my observations about my own Facebook and MySpace friends, who range from middle-school children to women in their 70s, are coincidental or the direct result of elitist attitudes about social networking. For now, I will keep my MySpace and encourage my little brother to do the same.