Social networking sites are a lot like your neighborhood bars. They’ve each got their own atmosphere, crowds, and you choose which one you'd like to be at based on your preference for either of those qualities. This is a great way of assessing the types of (potentially like-minded) people you may meet on these sites; however, this site selection usually gives way to an "us vs. them" mentality. in Boyd’s article, "Viewing American Class Divisions through MySpace and Facebook" the "us" and the "them" become the "hegemonic" and "subaltern" teens - or what the rest of the America would call the "good" and "bad".
Boyd’s discussion of social networking sites reveals a very scary comparison that is leveled against today's teens. The idea that those who conform to societies rules are good and those that do not are bad can't be good for teenagers as they develop their sense of self and, furthermore, isn't a maxim that is completely true. The fact that this "good vs. bad" dialog has been translated to teen’s online socializing behaviors is even more startling.
And yet, as arbitrary as this internet-age social code seems, I have witnessed it exactly as Boyd portrays it. I came of age around the same time that Friendster, the first social networking site of its kind, hit its peak. At the time, the novelty of connecting with friends over the internet far outweighed the hipness of its aesthetics or exclusivity. Actually, that’s not entirely true. At the time, Friendster had little to no competition so there were no hipper/better sites to flock to. But, in the years that followed the competition appeared and Friendster was left in the dust. Facebook emerged as the go to place with those for a .edu email account and MySpace was the catch all for everyone else who wanted profiles but lacked credentials. In Boyd’s article she points to a number of reasons for the social divide between Facebook and MySpace (aesthetics, interest in bands, etc.) but I think these elements are all symptomatic of their beginnings. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was a Harvard student replicating the university’s internal website for profit. The fact that it persisted as a site for “.edu-havers only” for years after its inception is key to understanding its ivory tower outlook today.
Even now that Facebook has opened its gates and allowed entrance to high school students and the middle aged alike, the elitist current has not flagged. I could write a dissertation on the disadvantages of being Facebook friends with my mother. I could also note the fact that online communication between me and my hometown friends (who still reside in the lower middle class enclave famous for Pat Benetar and the number of pubs per capita we grew up in) is limited to MySpace messages and infrequently checked emails, all for lack of computer access. It may seem like a lot of work must be done in order to change people’s opinions about these sites and the people who use them, but I wonder if that is all that important. In as much as self-imposed caste systems are limiting, they are still self-imposed.
I think you raise a really good point about users' opinions about these social networking sites: not only mightn't people mind the stigma of the sites, but they might even prefer to perpetuate them.
ReplyDeleteI’d totally read your dissertation on the disadvantages of being Facebook friends with your mother! My mom isn’t quite tech savvy enough to be on Facebook (let alone send an email without my dad’s teamwork), but friends’ parents are on Facebook, and their friend requests are in limbo at present because I can’t decide whether I’d really like to have them checking out whatever’s posted. Even tougher, former colleagues—and high up ones, too, that I could possibly one day be in touch with about a job—are Facebook friends of mine now, too, and it’s stress inducing if I put too much weight into their potential judgments of my life (which isn’t all too risqué, but involves lots of fun-having).
I was never interested in myspace, but I never registered the disinterest to be status-related. Your post and this article make have me wondering how much—or how little—of my choice to wait to (actively) join a site until Facebook blew up had to do with unconscious class awareness.