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Utter nonsense. Overlaying a racist agenda onto the shift from Myspace to Facebook is ridiculous. Neither have any barier to entry. Abandoning Yahoo! for Google

by sharpn 17y ago

Utter nonsense. Overlaying a racist agenda onto the shift from Myspace to Facebook is ridiculous. Neither have any barier to entry. Abandoning Yahoo! for Google might also shadow the population changes the author alludes to, but does that make google users racist? No. EDIT: the new original link provides more reasoned context - but even then, the data appears very, very weak [~4 anecdotal data points, all 17-year-olds]. If the point were valid it would be troubling, but I'm not convinced on the evidence provided.

diN0bot 17y ago
i think you misunderstand homophilia. ok, voted down, maybe for not explaining. alli can bring myself to do is say: the point is not barrier to entry but self-segregation. starting a comment with "Utter nonsense. <article thesis> is rediculous" is entertaining but poor form (in my books). i think there are real issues here that are being belittled simply because sociology and media studies do not fall into the IT/web realm you are comfortable with. i regret having risen to the bait to begin with. this article, ironcially, cannot be seriously considered in this community.
- teej 17y ago
  We're not all tech people here on HN. Could you expand on why you think homophillia is the presiding effect for the migration to Facebook?
- pygy 17y ago
  I think that you actually have a point. It's not so much about racial than about social class divide. The fact that there's a correlation between class and race in the US and in Europe is a leftover of our recent history. Facebook is cleaner, more orderly. Myspace is more chaotic and flashy. It's not surprising that people will cling online to sites with some familiarity to their real life environment.
- look_lookatme 17y ago
  "i think you misunderstand homophilia." I'm pretty sure that doesn't make any sense in this context. Did you mean something else? [edit] I see where you were coming from in the OP: "homophily".
calambrac 17y ago
First, read the actual article, not this poorly regurgitated bullshit (http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html). Second, recognize the fact that Danah Boyd does actual research and generally knows her shit. Third, understand that she specifically says that we wouldn't expect to see the problem because there's no barrier to entry, yet we do anyways, which makes it that much more disturbing.
- InkweaverReview 17y ago
  Thank you for sharing the original article. It is considerably better than the article that was submitted. I believe that the URL of this news item should be switched to point to the original paper.
  - quoderat 17y ago
    I submitted the original several days ago. No upvotes, maybe due to the time I submitted it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682172 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682172
- tokenadult 17y ago
  "This quote provides the key to understanding the distinction between MySpace and Facebook. Choice isn't about features of functionality. It's about the social categories in which we live. It's about choosing sites online that reflect "people like me." And it's about seeing the "other" site as the place where the "other" people go. " Anastasia (17, New York): My school is divided into the 'honors kids,' (I think that is self-explanatory), the 'good not-so-honors kids,' 'wangstas,' (they pretend to be tough and black but when you live in a suburb in Westchester you can't claim much hood), the 'latinos/hispanics,' (they tend to band together even though they could fit into any other groups) and the 'emo kids' (whose lives are allllllways filled with woe). We were all in MySpace with our own little social networks but when Facebook opened its doors to high schoolers, guess who moved and guess who stayed behind… The first two groups were the first to go and then the 'wangstas' split with half of them on Facebook and the rest on MySpace... I shifted with the rest of my school to Facebook and it became the place where the 'honors kids' got together and discussed how they were procrastinating over their next AP English essay."
sbt 17y ago
Agreed. The question is, what do they actually do at this Berkman Center? This analysis reminded me of a classmate who wanted to cast Shakespeare as an early marxist. Litterature students can make arguments for anything and the people behind this analysis should find something more meaningful to do with their life.

by sharpn 17y ago

diN0bot 17y ago

i think you misunderstand homophilia. ok, voted down, maybe for not explaining. alli can bring myself to do is say: the point is not barrier to entry but self-segregation. starting a comment with "Utter nonsense. <article thesis> is rediculous" is entertaining but poor form (in my books). i think there are real issues here that are being belittled simply because sociology and media studies do not fall into the IT/web realm you are comfortable with. i regret having risen to the bait to begin with. this article, ironcially, cannot be seriously considered in this community.

teej 17y ago
We're not all tech people here on HN. Could you expand on why you think homophillia is the presiding effect for the migration to Facebook?
pygy 17y ago
I think that you actually have a point. It's not so much about racial than about social class divide. The fact that there's a correlation between class and race in the US and in Europe is a leftover of our recent history. Facebook is cleaner, more orderly. Myspace is more chaotic and flashy. It's not surprising that people will cling online to sites with some familiarity to their real life environment.
look_lookatme 17y ago
"i think you misunderstand homophilia." I'm pretty sure that doesn't make any sense in this context. Did you mean something else? [edit] I see where you were coming from in the OP: "homophily".

calambrac 17y ago

First, read the actual article, not this poorly regurgitated bullshit (http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html). Second, recognize the fact that Danah Boyd does actual research and generally knows her shit. Third, understand that she specifically says that we wouldn't expect to see the problem because there's no barrier to entry, yet we do anyways, which makes it that much more disturbing.

InkweaverReview 17y ago
Thank you for sharing the original article. It is considerably better than the article that was submitted. I believe that the URL of this news item should be switched to point to the original paper.
- quoderat 17y ago
  I submitted the original several days ago. No upvotes, maybe due to the time I submitted it. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682172 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=682172
tokenadult 17y ago
"This quote provides the key to understanding the distinction between MySpace and Facebook. Choice isn't about features of functionality. It's about the social categories in which we live. It's about choosing sites online that reflect "people like me." And it's about seeing the "other" site as the place where the "other" people go. " Anastasia (17, New York): My school is divided into the 'honors kids,' (I think that is self-explanatory), the 'good not-so-honors kids,' 'wangstas,' (they pretend to be tough and black but when you live in a suburb in Westchester you can't claim much hood), the 'latinos/hispanics,' (they tend to band together even though they could fit into any other groups) and the 'emo kids' (whose lives are allllllways filled with woe). We were all in MySpace with our own little social networks but when Facebook opened its doors to high schoolers, guess who moved and guess who stayed behind… The first two groups were the first to go and then the 'wangstas' split with half of them on Facebook and the rest on MySpace... I shifted with the rest of my school to Facebook and it became the place where the 'honors kids' got together and discussed how they were procrastinating over their next AP English essay."

sbt 17y ago

Agreed. The question is, what do they actually do at this Berkman Center? This analysis reminded me of a classmate who wanted to cast Shakespeare as an early marxist. Litterature students can make arguments for anything and the people behind this analysis should find something more meaningful to do with their life.