Did Whites Flee the 'Digital Ghetto' of MySpace?
A new analysis by Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd argues that Facebook's success is due in part to "white flight" from MySpace.
Christopher Mims 07/14/2010
- 39 Comments
We were talking about the social media practices of her classmates when I asked her why most of her friends were moving from MySpace to Facebook. Kat grew noticeably uncomfortable. She began simply, noting that "MySpace is just old now and it's boring." But then she paused, looked down at the table, and continued.
"It's not really racist, but I guess you could say that. I'm not really into racism, but I think that MySpace now is more like ghetto or whatever."
So begins the book chapter White Flight in Networked Publics -- How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook (pdf) part of the forthcoming book Digital Race Anthology.
Danah Boyd, author of the chapter, stirred up controversy once before, in 2007, by noting that during the period beginning in 2006 when teens began to flock to Facebook, teens' preference for either MySpace or Facebook appeared to fall along lines of race and class.
Subsequent statistical analyses of the characteristics of users of online social networks by researchers, marketers and bloggers, she notes in her latest work, backed up her claims that white and asian teens who belonged to higher socieconomic strata (and who aspired to college, with which Facebook at the time was associated) were attracted to Facebook, while latino, black and working-class teens tended to opt for MySpace. Boyd notes in her chapter:
Analysts at two unnamed marketing research firms contacted me to say that they witnessed similar patterns with youth at a national level but they were unable to publicly discuss or publish their finding, but scholars and bloggers were more willing to share their findings.
Boyd's current work argues that MySpace took on many of the aspects of a "digital ghetto" in the minds of teens who used the site, leading to "white [and asian] flight" from the site, analogous to the white flight from the city to the suburbs that took place in the U.S. beginning in the 1960's. Boyd continues:
Consider the parallels. In some senses, the first teens to move to the "suburbs" were those who bought into a Teen Dream of collegiate maturity, namely those who were expressly headed towards dorm-‐based universities and colleges. They were the elite who were given land in the new suburbs before plots were broadly available. The suburbs of Facebook signaled more mature living, complete with digital fences to keep out strangers. The narrative that these digital suburbs were safer than the city enhanced its desirability, particularly for those who had no interest in interacting with people who were different.
Boyd argues that MySpace's inability to deal with spammers added to the feeling of urban blight that overtook the site, leaving derelict profiles "covered in spam, a form of digital graffiti... As MySpace failed to address these issues, spammers took over like street gangs."
Subsequent media coverage of the "death of MySpace" was a direct result of this flight, says Boyd. For example, she cites a 2009 New York Times article that was entitled "Do You Know Anyone Still on MySpace?" despite the fact that at the time Facebook and MySpace has roughly equal numbers of users.
"The New York Times staff was on Facebook and assumed their readers were too," concludes Boyd.
Intriguingly, the comments under that news item support Boyd's thesis:
"My impression is that Myspace is for the riffraff and Facebook is for the landed gentry."
"Compared to Facebook, MySpace just seems like the other side of the tracks - I'll go there for fun, but I wouldn't want to live there."
Boyd's conclusion is that online environments are merely "a reflection of everyday life," and that online communities are immune to the techno-optimist belief that the internet eliminates the deep divisions between people in real life. As Boyd notes in her own responses to earlier critiques of her work, this is either a controversial or an obvious thesis - what do you think?
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GaryB
119 Comments
yeah yeah
Other possible conclusions:
* Minorities are too stupid or unsophisticated to want cleaner, spam free environments?
* Worse, Blacks and Latinos are so racist against Whites and Asians that they won't even move to a better environment least they inadvertently interact with those they hate.
* Maybe they actively drove out the Whites and Asians by oppressing them?
* Or, perhaps people just cluster around like interests and there wasn't any moral component to the migration.
I finally got my infrequently used facebook account because the people I talk to went there away from my infrequently used myspace account. I shudder to think that I was utterly unaware of being surrounded by unsavory minorities during my time at myspace. I will have to talk with the White and Asian councils about their lack of warning about this situation.
Reply
bpertum
11 Comments
Re: yeah yeah
Understandable sarcasm Gary, however, Boyd's conclusion is based both on the fact of white flight from myspace and samples of the opinions of those who switched social networks. The reputation of MySpace as a "Digital Ghetto" within her sample was prevalent enought to warrant her conclusion.
The author notes that:
"Boyd's conclusion is that online environments are merely "a reflection of everyday life," and that online communities are immune to the techno-optimist belief that the internet eliminates the deep divisions between people in real life."
Additionally:
"Analysts at two unnamed marketing research firms contacted me to say that they witnessed similar patterns with youth at a national level but they were unable to publicly discuss or publish their finding, but scholars and bloggers were more willing to share their findings."
You provide no data to support your alternative conclusions. Boyd has done so. In fact, "* Minorities are too stupid or unsophisticated to want cleaner, spam free environments?" is racist conjecture unless you can demonstrate that minorities are more tolerant of spam (and that minority users are more stupid than white social networkers), though I won't indict you for that conjecture by calling you a racist. I think you're just frustrated.
I'm encouraged that you would make such a frank comment in this forum because frank and honest discussions about race would be very beneficial to our society if they could be conducted in a civil manner.
Our society has made much progress in rendering racism as socially unacceptable to most people. Overt forms of racism have markedly declined over the decades yet there may be forms of it which need to be discovered by studies such as Boyd's if we are to continue this progress.
A deeper understanding of racial attitudes is long overdue I think. Contemporary racism is more likely to be manifested as implicit attitudes and behavior than as overt animosity. These types of manifestation could have significant implications pertaining to such behavior as hiring decisions. For instance, if people tend to hire those whom they perceive as most like themselves or those whom are more likely to be within their social network then racial bias in hiring patterns can be expected.
I encourage Boyd's work as well as your response.
Thanks Gary.
Reply
mattgroom
284 Comments
Re: yeah yeah
@bpertum
You are very nieve.
you assume by removing racism, cultures will intermingle, and their genes will all splice forming a new race of one combined culture with no affinities to any previous religion/culture or perhaps a combination of everything.
Wow you have high hopes.
Racism is not bad, get over your Political correctness it only does civilsation injustice.
The human race is about different cultures, religions, people, colours all interacting for a greater good of all.
Racism at its minimum allows this to happen, by eliminating racism you remove this from ever happening. To take us to one soup if you remove it.
Racism is good, fanatical racism is bad...just like every fanatical belief.
As i said get of PC, racism can work for the good.
Also i hate having the same conversations every 10 years with new people who werent around 10 years ago. The internet is bad for one thing...too many people forget history. Or alternatively great for news people they rehash the same old crap every 10 years and in every blog.
Reply
msgoddessoftruth
2 Comments
Re: yeah yeah
Your post is a bunch of crap and so is this article. You talk about blacks and hispanics are stupid? You are so stupid to believe this dumb article. Myspace lost it's users because it was full of YOUNG USERS OF ALL ETHNICITIES! I have a facebook acoount and a myspace and EVERYONE I know BLACKS, WHITES, HISPANICS, WHATEVER has had a myspace too. They don't like myspace because it's YOUNG PERIOD. You just happen to run into an article that expressed your personal opinion about something that you are too whimpy to express on your own.
Reply
bpertum
11 Comments
Re: yeah yeah
As you say "Myspace lost it's users because it was full of YOUNG USERS OF ALL ETHNICITIES!" Your key observation is that it "was" full of young users of all ethnicities. The problem that remains is to account for the racial disparity in migration from myspace to facebook. Boyd attempts to explain this disparity without explicitly claiming that it is a result of racism or that Facebook is populated by crypto racists.
The other question now of immediate relevance is why there is so much hostility in this blog toward the author, researcher and anyone who is open to her conclusion.
Reply
Mandinka
1 Comment
Re: yeah yeah
GaryB, you are an idiot for not thinking before you speak. Who is really the minority of this universe? It's time you debunk the psychological garbage you have been fed via parochial mediums. Once a fool will always be a fool!
Reply