06.25.07
Class issues
Funny. I was just thinking today how class effects so many issues and would you believe, it appears to show up in social networking too.
From the Guardian today, quoting Danah Boyd, it seems that Facebook is the SN site of preference for the white middle classes and Myspace for immigrants and working classes.
Even more interesting is the fact that the class divide has appeared in the army..
“A month ago, the military banned MySpace but not Facebook. This was a very interesting move because there’s a division, even in the military. Soldiers are on MySpace; officers are on Facebook.”
According to Ms Boyd, Facebook is not used by young soldiers, who are generally less well-educated and from poorer backgrounds, and there is an element of social conflict in the ban.
“The military ban appears to replicate the class divisions that exist throughout the military. I can’t help but wonder if the reason for this goes beyond the purported concerns that those in the military are leaking information or spending too much time online or soaking up too much bandwidth with their MySpace usage.”
Justin Mason said,
June 25, 2007 at 5:49 pm
My theory is that we’re seeing a situation where a clique locks themselves into one social networking service, to the exclusion of the other services, and the social networking services have very little control over what cliques use them.
I guess the cliques that form in the US military similarly have accidentally locked into this Facebook/Myspace division, and I guess social class is a very strong impulse controlling clique formation.
It seems pretty hard to predict which clique will lock in to each SNS; credit to some of them for reacting quickly enough to welcome those users, though — for example Myspace has managed to make itself *the* place for bands to post their music by adding the music player widgets etc.
Joseph said,
June 25, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Why don’t the soldiers just use face book now? SIMPLE NO?
Niall said,
June 25, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Hmmm. Interesting. But what is their Bebo policy?
I really don’t care if they send me to die in Iraq, so long as I can access my Bebo.
Ricky The Saint said,
June 26, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Is this not just another facet of US/UK social immobility and inequality? I wonder how irish usage breaks down by class (sorry I forgot Ireland is a class free society, hhhahhahhhhahhahaha)
irishflirtysomething said,
June 26, 2007 at 4:53 pm
The English have a class society and everyone knows their place.
The Americans have no class society but everyone knows their place.
The Irish have a class society but nobody knows their place.
Hugh Murphy said,
July 4, 2007 at 10:48 pm
There’s also a class system operating in the Trade Unions.
The Upper Class – ICTU are ignoring the fact that SIPTU is covering up the corruption of ITGWU.
This union, at the Belfast Docks persecuted and deprived the Belfast Dockers of their lives by making them discharge Asbestos. The Trade Union Leaders in the South – along with The Irish Times and The Times don’t want to know.
Irish Workers died, and are dying with the full agreement of their union, so the Belfast Employers could save money by not providing safety equipment.