There’s been plenty of buzz this week over a paper by U.C. Berkeley PhD. student Danah Boyd, who argues that Facebook users are more socioeconomically advantaged than those on MySpace. According to Boyd, the Facebook crowd “tend[s] to come from families who emphasize education and going to college … They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.”
This conclusion isn’t too surprising given the evolution paths of the two sites. MySpace, launched in 2003 as a competitor to the then-dominant Friendster, built its popularity on the ability to post music files on individual profiles. It emerged in 2005 as the preeminent social networking site, and developed popularity as a means of self-promotion for careers ranging from adult film star to presidential candidate.
Facebook, meanwhile, was created in 2004 by an undergraduate at Harvard, and evolved as an invite-only site for college students. In 2006, when MySpace was boasting 46 million users a month to Facebook’s 9.3 million, the smaller site opened its doors to include all potential users (to some protests from its core market of undergrads, recent alums, and teens preparing for college). Only in the past few months has the network begun to creep up on MySpace in popularity and growth. As such, logic decrees that Facebook would emerge as the more academically-oriented of the two, with a greater draw for upwardly mobile teens headed for college — a disproportionate number of whom are also white and come from wealthier backgrounds. And that, it seems, is an issue far more worthy of study.
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Isn’t this natural evolution in marketing, AKA segmentation or domination of particular niches?
Cars: pretty obvious here.
E-mail addresses: what’s your first impression of somebody using
aol.com
juno.com
yahoo.com
umich.edu
or somebody who shops at Safeway vs. Whole Foods?
It’s sort of a big “so what”. It’s important if you own Facebook or MySpace and are trying to make a buck out of it, but otherwise a yawn.
Isn’t this natural evolution in marketing, AKA segmentation or domination of particular niches?
Cars: pretty obvious here.
E-mail addresses: what’s your first impression of somebody using
aol.com
juno.com
yahoo.com
umich.edu
or somebody who shops at Safeway vs. Whole Foods?
It’s sort of a big “so what”. It’s important if you own Facebook or MySpace and are trying to make a buck out of it, but otherwise a yawn.
I suggest odds are high that they will be one entity one of these days so, while it’s an interesting observation, it’s a short term issue.
I suggest odds are high that they will be one entity one of these days so, while it’s an interesting observation, it’s a short term issue.
This assertion is indeed true;
Facebook originated as a way for college students to socialize with each other, while MySpace originated as a way for general individuals (ages 15-35) to socialize with others. In other words, Facebook was initially more exclusive while MySpace was more of a social handicap. As time went on, Facebook became more mainstream to draw more users. Nevertheless, its roots are still intact and the website is constructed with this influence. For example, friends are categorized by their networks, which for the most part revolve around each person’s university (or alma mater). On the other hand, MySpace is not organized at all in this exclusive manner. With this in mind, when people who aren’t from a scholastic network join Facebook they are immediately in their own person listing. Therefore people like this join MySpace where everyone is listed equally.
In conclusion, facebook is scholastically oriented and caters to individuals who feel the same way about their social networks, while MySpace is a socializing service for individuals who care less about scholastic backgrounds (and those individuals tend to be less socioeconomically inclined)
This assertion is indeed true;
Facebook originated as a way for college students to socialize with each other, while MySpace originated as a way for general individuals (ages 15-35) to socialize with others. In other words, Facebook was initially more exclusive while MySpace was more of a social handicap. As time went on, Facebook became more mainstream to draw more users. Nevertheless, its roots are still intact and the website is constructed with this influence. For example, friends are categorized by their networks, which for the most part revolve around each person’s university (or alma mater). On the other hand, MySpace is not organized at all in this exclusive manner. With this in mind, when people who aren’t from a scholastic network join Facebook they are immediately in their own person listing. Therefore people like this join MySpace where everyone is listed equally.
In conclusion, facebook is scholastically oriented and caters to individuals who feel the same way about their social networks, while MySpace is a socializing service for individuals who care less about scholastic backgrounds (and those individuals tend to be less socioeconomically inclined)
Facebook is a staple of the colliegate lifestyle nowadays. Not having one can make you look out of the loop (plus you’d never see the photos people post of you!), whereas having a myspace is more of a social handicap in college. In high school, there was myspace. My mainly white middle-class friends and I all ditched myspace after senior year, upgraded to facebook, and now can keep in contact with all our college friends this summer with no real issues.
Facebook also has a lot more privacy options. For example, if people were to search for me with respect to my network on facebook, they might get my name as a result, but my picture would be replaced by a question mark and they wouldn’t even be able to think of seeing my profile or any of my contact information.
Plus, on facebook, you get to poke people.
And really, who doesn’t like that?
I think I’ll go on facebook right now…
Facebook is a staple of the colliegate lifestyle nowadays. Not having one can make you look out of the loop (plus you’d never see the photos people post of you!), whereas having a myspace is more of a social handicap in college. In high school, there was myspace. My mainly white middle-class friends and I all ditched myspace after senior year, upgraded to facebook, and now can keep in contact with all our college friends this summer with no real issues.
Facebook also has a lot more privacy options. For example, if people were to search for me with respect to my network on facebook, they might get my name as a result, but my picture would be replaced by a question mark and they wouldn’t even be able to think of seeing my profile or any of my contact information.
Plus, on facebook, you get to poke people.
And really, who doesn’t like that?
I think I’ll go on facebook right now…