Boyd and McMurria

For this week’s blog I thought I would ramble about a couple of our readings. I just finished reading Danah Boyd’s article, “Viewing American class division through Facebook and MySpace” and found the article enlightening. Perhaps I was being a little naïve, or just not opening up my eyes, but I had never thought about their being a class divide involved with SNS’s. I was aware, of course, of socioeconomics playing a roll, at least when it came to computer access, but I was unaware of the class divide between Facebook and MySpace users. The article was written in 2007, I am curious to know how Boyd would interpret the SNS’s class division now. I feel that there has been a lot of new users to these SNS’s within the last couple of years. Different age groups are now participating in the SNS’s that were not mentioned by Boyd. I have noticed Facebook being popular among adults aged over thirty and have also noticed middle school aged students participating. In my experience, the adults tend to use Facebook and the young adults use MySpace and/or Facebook. Of course, after reading this article I wonder if this is because of class factors. I have also noticed a lot of parents being “friends” on their kids’ SNS’s. I wonder what Boyd would say to that.

Now onto a personal ranting about part of John McMurria’s “The YouTube Community” article. Wow! Talk about a class divide! I wonder if Boyd would refer to the YouTube community as hegemonic. I am always amazed by the number of people who feel the need to push their values onto everyone else while in the same breath they talk of democracy. As if the other person’s values are not acceptable or somehow inferior to their own. The small town image spoken of by Paul Robinett in McMurria’s article hardly represents America. According to the 2005 census, 83 percent of Americans live in metro areas. Robinett’s community does reflect a piece of America, but a very small piece. To be a truly democratic source, YouTube (and technology in general) has to get past this class divide. I feel that will only happen when people quit trying to dictate their values onto others. Just as we attempted to racially desegregate our country by beginning with our schools, it is time we desegregate technology by beginning with the school room. Instead of opposing technology, or at best ignoring it, schools and teachers need to embrace it and provide ALL of their students with access and the necessary skills to use this technology. You cannot be truly democratic unless all members of the community are given the opportunity to participate. This does not appear to be taking place.