danah boyd SM '02 investigates social networking.
Among the looming questions about social networking tools is ‘who uses Tool A versus Tool B.’ danah boyd has been exploring this topic, particularly as it relates to teens, as a graduate student at MIT and UCBerkeley, as you’ll see in her Technology Review profile. Now, she’s a social media researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
She share her recent research in an article titled, “Facebook and MySpace Users Are Clearly Divided Along Class Lines,” posted on AlterNet on Sept. 3. The article, originally a talk at the Personal Democracy Forum, argues that “the inequalities and divisions in society have emerged online in social networks despite the belief that everyone is connected by the Internet.”
In particular she proposes that race and class lines are distinct in the Facebook versus MySpace populations. She traces how the two Web sites began and spread, who jumps ship, and who stands with their original choice. In brief, white educated teens favor Facebook. Her excellent article shares her findings, including how the two groups feel about each other.
Slice of MIT by the Alumni Association 
September 7, 2009 at 8:56 pm
This is an interesting analysis and I am especially glad of the recognition by the author of the condescension of “upper classes” toward “lower classes.” As a classmate of mine pointed out a decade+ ago, such condescension leads to social programs that the beneficiaries see as incredibly patronizing.
I would also cast the article along an older line of debate: Are equal outcomes the result of equal opportunity? And which equality is the one for which we should strive? In the specific case here, the opportunities to join Facebook and MySpace are essentially identical: once you’re online, they’re both free. However, as the author’s analysis shows, the outcome is very different. Is that bad or good? “Right” or “wrong?” It’s a good question.
September 7, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Are there similar studies on teenage cable TV viewership (and channel selections)?
Are Discovery Channel viewers different than History Channel viewers? Fox or MSNBC?
September 9, 2009 at 2:51 am
We did a similar but quick research at CareerSpice looking into SN as supposedly the emerging tool for job search. We predicted the same human behavioral pattern will shape the SN…We called it the SN Gated Communities. The results will be the same as current street employment practices: It’s who you know.