The Online Class Divide

danah boyd gave a presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum about how young people's class play out online in social networking sites. She quotes Kat, a 14-year-old: "I'm not really into racism, but I think that MySpace now is more like ghetto or whatever, and Facebook is all... not all the people that have Facebook are mature, but its supposed to be like oh we're more mature." boyd argues that young people from higher socioeconomic status backgrounds are more comfortable engaging in "adult" environments and as such they are more likely to favor the "mature" social networking site, Facebook.

boyd says: "What happened was modern day "white flight." Whites were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. The educated were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those from wealthier backgrounds were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those from the suburbs were more likely to leave or choose Facebook. Those who deserted MySpace did so by "choice" but their decision to do so was wrapped up in their connections to others, in their belief that a more peaceful, quiet, less-public space would be more idyllic."

The notes from her presentation are available here.