[Air-l] teens and myspace

[danah boyd]

So, i'm the psycho child obsessively hanging out on MySpace all night  
and hanging out with teens during the day.  (Oh, and dealing with the  
suited humans who want to ban the site and the press who wants to  
hype the fear factor.)  This thread is amazing to come home to.

Here's some data for you.  Of the 58 million MySpace accounts, > 85%  
are American and about half are under 24 (aka "youth").  300,000 are  
bands and the rest are "adults"... Of course, there are a lot of  
folks aged 100 who are actually teens. There are many different  
subcultures living under the same roof.  MySpace is home to teens,  
musicians, porn divas (think Suicide Girls), artists, goths, emos,  
and all sorts of creatures of the club world.

MySpace is common across the teenscape in the States, across socio- 
economic class, race and gender.  It's accessed in schools and in  
homes (when possible).  The kids who have Net access and aren't on it  
are primarily either 1) banned by school/parents; 2) "too cool for  
MySpace."  They are mostly "mainstream" for whatever that means... at  
least they perceive the average MySpacer as mainstream, even if not  
themselves.

What i'm finding is that they are facing many of the same  
consequences online that they've always faced offline.  They are  
finding that gossip gets them into trouble, that sketchy people exist  
everywhere (especially in their peergroup), and that bullying uses  
whatever medium is available.  They are finding that popularity moves  
smoothly between online and offline worlds, that coolness requires  
digital literacy, and that reciprocity is critical for bonding.  They  
are using the site to hang out  and share cultural bits like music,  
links, videos, etc.

They definitely don't have a stigma attached to the Internet but most  
would rather be hanging out with their friends in physical space  
because it's more interesting.  So they are acutely aware of the  
limitations for hanging out, but it's not about stigma.  Often, they  
are on MySpace when their parents think they're doing homework or  
before/after dinner or when they're not allowed out.  So they spend  
quite a bit of time bitching back and forth to each other.

They recognize that IM is not the same as voice and depending on the  
teen, they prefer one medium to the other, but often not because of  
stigma, more preference.  Older (academically minded) teens are  
recognizing the interruption problem with both phone and IM when  
they're trying to actually do something and they'll turn both off.   
[Do note: most teens leave their phones off most of the day because  
of school... they don't think it's necessary to have it on all the  
time, unlike most adults with mobiles.]  I'm also seeing the sociable  
IM practices fade in college when youth have more freedom to gather  
and less interest in spending hours in front of their computer just  
cuz.  A lot of what i'm seeing about "outgrowing" it comes from that  
- the opportunity to have other forms of socialization.  For those  
with $, SMS is starting to replace it because they are mobile.  All  
you can eat data plans are just starting to kick in.

As for "addiction," remember that this is language that has always  
been used around moral panics when youth value what is being used but  
recognize that it's not accepted by adult culture. If you look at the  
diaries of the Lowell girls, they wrote extensively about the guilt  
they felt about reading all of the time... They talked about being  
addicted to the novels and expressed "guilty pleasures."  So it  
doesn't surprise me that there's expressions of addiction, but it's  
not an addiction that most are actually fighting (as opposed to say  
heroin).

Oh, and re: terminology... "The Internet" refers to Google (and what  
is found through it) to most of the teens i've been dealing with.   
There is email, IM, MySpace, (games if appropriate), and the  
Internet.  I don't really hear "online" so much... i hear a lot more  
about "her profile" or "on MySpace" but not "online" per say.

I would be very hesitant to draw too many parallels between  
Friendster and MySpace because they were invaded by very different  
populations and similar features were used very differently.  The  
bulk of Friendster's population was the 20somethings who had a lot of  
mobility and freedom - their expressions via testimonials were very  
much meant to talk _about_ the owner while MySpace comments are often  
a dialogue between the two meant to be overheard.  The networking  
component that was critical to Friendster because that group was  
looking to get laid is not that significant in MySpace - it's just a  
way to gather friends around.  Far fewer people teens traverse the  
network than one might assume.  There was a lot more sarcasm and  
irony in Friendster, in part because the early adopters were the  
geeks, freaks and queers who were damn fluent in subcultural language  
and used that for humorous expression in Friendster.  The MySpace  
teens' expressions are much more rooted in what they mean to express  
than a meta-narrative of it.  [If you want my ethnographic piece on  
Friendster, let me know - it's still in review.]

MySpace is as connected to the offline as Facebook.  It's just the  
difference between high schools and colleges for the most part now.

One thing that is really affecting the dynamic is the fear of  
predators.  Every day i hear from teens who are afraid of what's  
going on - they hear these reports and they're scared.  They want to  
know if it's real.  The latest high drama situation involved the  
disappearance of two neighbors, girls both named Alex.  The mothers  
were all over the press screaming foul play, abduction, etc.  They  
blamed MySpace and the press blamed them in turn.  MySpace worked  
directly with law enforcement and fed me data for my engagements with  
the press today (i was to face the parents on NBC tonite).  They were  
clearly banned from the site 10 days before they were "abducted"  
because they went from logging in hourly and sending messages  
frequently to suddenly stopping.  Their profiles will covered with  
information about how much they loved each other (signaling a queer  
relationship with "bisexual" and with the language they were using).   
They found the girls this morning before i met the parents.  They had  
run away to be with each other.  They were brought back forcibly.  :-(

The attorney general of Connecticut is after MySpace for child  
endangerment after a child predator supposedly harmed numerous kids  
in his state; police have had no reports of any such predator. The  
number of actual abductions or sexual crimes that might even possibly  
be connected to MySpace currently numbers <10.  1% of all sex crimes  
against minors have anything to do with the Internet.  There are more  
sex crimes against minors per day in the state of Connecticut than  
can be remotely connected to MySpace.  And MySpace has a lot more  
kids than the state of Connecticut.

The fearful hype is pretty intense right now - people are running  
pretty darn scared.  What kills me is that the data doesn't support  
the hype - it is a pure moral panic.  Of course, kids are being  
expelled on a regular basis for their participation on MySpace and  
some people aren't getting jobs.  Of course, many are because of  
MySpace; a girl today told me about starting her music career there  
and finding that people actually like her music.

Still, as we think about perception by teens, it's important to note  
that the scary press is doing more to shape perception of the  
Internet and addiction than anything else right now....

Anyhow, i hope some of this helps...

danah


- - - - - - - - - - d a n a h ( d o t ) o r g - - - - - - - - - -
"taken out of context i must seem so strange"

musings :: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts