[Sigia-l] Two worlds apart?

[Ziya Oz]

In "Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace" Danah
Boyd writes:

The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to
Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and
going to college. They are part of what we'd call hegemonic society. They
are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes,
looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school
activities.

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens,
"burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas,
queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school
popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who
are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens
who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are
really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the
kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks,
or queers.



This is even clear in the blogosphere where people talk about how gauche
MySpace is while commending Facebook on its aesthetics. I'm sure that a
visual analyst would be able to explain how classed aesthetics are, but
aesthetics are more than simply the "eye of the beholder" - they are
culturally narrated and replicated. That "clean" or "modern" look of
Facebook is akin to West Elm or Pottery Barn or any poshy Scandinavian
design house (that I admit I'm drawn to) while the more flashy look of
MySpace resembles the Las Vegas imagery that attracts millions every year. I
suspect that lifestyles have aesthetic values and that these are being
reproduced on MySpace and Facebook.

<http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html>

Pottery Barn vs. Las Vegas. Is the dog wagging the tail here or vice versa
with respect to the two sites' design?

----
Ziya

Business = Design = Business.