The Color of Society

Like Danah Boyd pointed out in her talk, people tend to stick with people like themselves. This holds true for the Internet. Most people tend to not go to websites or do activities on the Internet (such as games) that they aren't interested in, just like outside of the Internet. If you don't like to go bowling then you probably aren't going to go bowling very often. How does this relate to race or class and such? I'm not sure. I don't know how much race or ethnicity affects our choices of who we interact with on the Internet. Certainly people will be more likely to visit websites and socialize with people who speak their own language, so where you live definitely makes an impact. I suppose race and ethnicity will influence who you decide to socialize with, but I think that, on the Internet, it's an indirect influence and not a conscious choice for most people (especially since it's hard to know race and such without people telling you, unlike outside the Internet). From my own experience I could not tell you the race or ethnicity of most of the people I socialize with on the Internet outside of my non-Internet friends.

Social Networking and the Mobile Web

Social networking has become a huge part of our lives today. With a huge majority of people now constantly using Facebook and Twitter to communicate with each other and people use every way possible to to get on to these sites. One of these ways is the mobile web, with more and more people buying smart phones to replace their old boring phones. This has allowed more access for people to get to the internet. While not all people use their phones to do this, many do. Through research it has shown mobile web is used by those of lower income families than larger income because it is an easier for them to use their phones when they don't have internet in their house or another easy way to access it. I think that overall mobile web and social networking will help shape our future and direction it goes.

Why join MySpace or Facebook?

While reading through this week's article "The Not-So-Hidden politics of Class Online" made me stop and think. Why did I join MySpace? Why did I join Facebook? It was not because of Race, or economic status, or my social category. Not because I was more educated then others. It was simple, just my choice. MySpace always seem to be more for the teenager or the more artist person, then adults. I remember my son stating when I mentioned about joining MySpace that, "I was too old", it was for his age group. Once I did join I realized he was right. Honestly I did join, not that I'm proud of but to keep an eye on what he, my nieces, & nephews were up too.

As stated by Kaitlyn from Georgia in the article, "Facebook is for old people". I guess I'm one of those old folks. Basically my friends were there rich, poor, educated, non-educated, black, white, brown, giving us all a chance to reconnect.

Found this Study, based on data collected from a national survey"Got Facebook? Investigating What's Social about Social Media." This presents findings in regards to the social, cultural, and political activities that Facebook users engage. How they interact and the types of media and information they share. Which is quite interesting?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/46059952/Got-Facebook-Investigating-What-s-Social-About-Social-Media

White Flight!?

In"The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online", the author is fearful that the social groups and minorities not taking up facebook will be left in the dark due to their "social divisions"manifesting online. Hegemony at its finest.

Why is it that the facebook crowd is the norm, and the other networks are the social minorities? Sure, they may have an audience that is considered "minority" by our social standards, but only when compared to the NORMALNESS of white, suburban America. There's no call to embrace myspace or orkut, spread from facebook onwards, or ignore it all together. Only to assimilate these minorities into the most popular social tool of the day. "Make them come to us" seems to be the goal here, not understanding or embracing very real cultural divides, but ignoring them and their legitimate differences to sustain the traditional values, goals, etc. held by our society.

Social Networking: The Digital Tranformation

When I think of how race, ethnicity, and class play out online, especially in social networks like Facebook and MySpace, I think about how all of these various demographics interact with one another on such sites.

Having a Facebook page myself, I believe that social networking sites help bring people together in ways that probably wouldn't occur in real life. Since digital technology has and is evolving in ways like never before since Facebook and Myspace helps break down barriers between people and unite them.

One reason can be because of how people tend to be more open and communicative across the Internet rather than in real life. Going further, the ability to partner up and play games online helps bring people of different demographics together.

A recent example of this is the WordsWithFriends application, which allows multiple people to play a Scrabble-like game to build words and earn points. I realized that the game unites all kinds of people, like African Americans, Caucasians, Mexicans, and Arabic.

In a real-life setting, one would probably not find all these ethnicities playing this type of game, which speaks to the power of social networks and applications.

Here, real life isn't necessarily being reflected, but definitely transformed since people's comfort levels tend to be higher when face-to-face contact is not available, or not preferred.

Facebook or MySpace? Does it Really Matter?

As I was reading "The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online" I was surprised by how fearful the author seemed to be. She says things like "white flight should send warning signals" and "we should be truly alarmed" by people switching from MySpace to Facebook. Truly alarmed? I really can't believe this woman is serious. She says that she is worried that these "social divisions" will cause underpriviledged and minority people to be unheard by their representatives because they're not on Facebook. That's quite a stretch. Most people that are on Facebook talk don't talk to their state representatives at all and if users of MySpace want to contact their representatives they can do that by joining Facebook, by email, through their webpage, a phone call, or maybe they could even write a letter.

Why does it matter if someone uses Facebook or MySpace? Maybe they choose one over the other because it fits their personality better. People spend time in places they like. Most people I know have a favorite restaurant or club. They may even go to these places with their friends. As Danah says, "(people) go where their friends go" and, based on my experience, people are usually friends with people they work with, go to school with, or live near. Quite often those people are similar to ourselves. I don't feel this is cause for "alarm".

Danah doesn't make much sense to me. Even though she says that it matters whether people use Facebook or MySpace I don't believe her. She doesn't make a strong case for why the division of people on these websites is bad and she doesn't say anything about people who don't use these sites at all. She speaks with too much fear and she comes across as a weak person. Ultimately she is just not believable.

* I had to do this blog post on only the Danah Boyd article because I couldn't access the other two.

Facebook VS. MySpace

I got a Myspace when I was a sophomore in high school. It was the "cool" thing to do. In April of my senior year, I got a Facebook. Facebook was suppose to only be for college students, but I figured since I was just about to graduate high school, that it would be OK if I got one. At first, I still always checked my Mypsace first, and was more into that than Facebook. Once I arrived at college, I started checking Myspace less and less, and Facebook more and more. ...................................................................................................................................................................... Personally, I began to like Facebook more because of the newsfeed. It made it easier for me to see what my friends were doing all at once instead of going to each individual profile. I also thought Facebook was faster because without all the music and backgrounds, the pages loaded more quickly. Myspace seemed to become more for the younger age groups, whereas Facebook started to seem more mature. The people that were interviewed in the article were mostly in their teens. It is weird seeing them say they prefer Facebook over Myspace. Maybe I don't have younger people requesting to be my friend on Facebook, but I didn't realize so many highschoolers had a Facebook. It has definately evolved because I hardly had any friends on Facebook when I first joined when I was a senior in high school, and these kids have hundreds of friends as freshman. I have a few cousins who are freshman in high school who are my friends, but they also live out of state. ....................................................................................................................................................................... I think that where you live affects whether you prefer Facebook or Myspace. My friend from California had a Myspace two years before I had even heard of it before. Depending on how common it is around you, then you will tend to use that social networking site. If all of your friends have Facebook, then you will probably be more active on that website than Myspace. ................................................................ I don't see how people can really judge and say certain races use Myspace more than others. One of the girls said that Myspace was more "ghetto", and I am not sure how she can make that assumption. I think that its a preference, and depending on where most of your friends are, that will be the social networking site that you choose. Myspace used to be the thing to have, but now it seems like it was a phase, and now people of all ages have a Facebook. I wonder if Facebook will slowly start to die and a new social networking site will take off. Only time will tell.....