[Air-l] viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace

[Jason Wilson]

Hi Jimmy and all, 

Points taken Jimmy, but there is more to go with arguments about class, I think. 

Your point about people not necessarily wanting to flee "people they don't like" may be warranted, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people aren't fleeing *towards* where "people like us" ("linked in", tech-literate, "creative") gather. Saying that MySpace has bad customer service doesn't account for the way in which different groups appear to be gravitating towards one or another of the range of alternatives. 

According to comscore numbers here http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/11516.asp (admittedly these are a year old) 

- People 18-24 are 3 times more likely than the average Internet user to
visit Facebook.  

- People in households with an income over US$100,000 are
30% more likely than average to visit Facebook. 

- The slightly above
average level of visitation from people with household incomes lower
than US$25,000 is explained by the preponderance of users who are at
college/university, who we can safely assume will inhabit a significant
proportion of $100K+ households in the future, and will get there more
quickly than those without a University education.

Additionally, American teens seem to be going in large numbers to Xanga, while MySpace continues to grow, attracting an older demographic (the "late adopters"?).

Facebook's aesthetics embody a kind of functional minimalism that appeals to a middle class sensibility (significantly personalisation applications do not disturb the overall layout and colour scheme). Facebook's privacy and networking models mean that you are significantly less likely to have to interact with people you don't know or like already. The "tech-success" narrative, and the refusal to sell to Yahoo appeal as a kind of modern entrepreneurial fable that aspirational college-educated users are attracted to participating in. The Murdoch-owned MySpace, by contrast, might be seen as a narrative of Big & Old (& Unfashionable) media capitalising on innovation. 

The marketing people, at least, are excited by the potential that Facebook offers for reaching a higher-income user-base, and ads on Facebook will cost you more: loads of links to this effect here http://del.icio.us/search/?user=digital_white_flight

Cheers
Jason Wilson








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