Next week our class will be discussing and exploring social networks. Having three kids in the high school to college age range, I am a witness to the use of these sites (myspace and facebook) rather than a user. I do have a xanga account(that I don't update often), but to me its more like a straight blog than a social network. Everyone else in the family migrated to the other sites, and they told me that I'm too old to be there. I can respect their wishes for- can you call it privacy?
Xanga was great when we were all active, though, so I can see why the kids all like being in a social network. It made me feel more connected to all of my nieces and nephews, and I could send them little messages of love or congratulations by responding to their posts. When they bragged about drinking, or loving songs with explicit lyrics, the elders among us would offer some gentle advice. Teens never appreciate that advice, and since their friends were all getting new myspace accounts, they stopped posting in xanga.
There's an interesting young researcher, Danah Boyd, who has been studying teens' use of social network sites, and my real reason for this whole blog post is to recommend that you check out her website, blog and presentations.
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2 comments:
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for posting the Boyd article it was very interesting and offered some food for thought!
My aunts and uncles use social networks to keep up with their family members as well. My one uncle even went to the extent of creating a Myspace account for my cousin (he's 1 1/2 years old) so he can show everyone pictures and his new likes/dislikes.
Thanks for the Boyd article as well, I never really thought about class divisions on Myspace and Facebook - but there is definitely a divide amongst its users!
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