MySpace 101

When I was in middle school, MySpace was the hottest thing. I remember spending hours finding the right background, font, music, and pictures for my site. I remember personalizing my “Top 8” and commenting on friends’ photos. In her 2007 article “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life,” Danah Boyd examines the fascination surrounding social network websites, particularly MySpace.com, and aims to help us understand the gap between teenage and adult (parental) interpretations of these sites. Danah Boyd is a distinguished scholar who studies how younger generations use social media as a part of their every day lives. Her article is published in the MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume. The MacArthur Foundation particularly serves as a forum for scholars to publish works about youth and technology.

Boyd first examines the basic demographic makeup of Myspace users. She found that, of the 87% of teenagers that have internet access, over 55% of teens have an account on some kind of social networking site. I’m not surprised by this number, as I and all of my friends have had accounts since we were 13. She next looks at how MySpace first started. Unbeknownst to me, the site actually started as a site for bands to share their music. Over time, teenagers (as well as some business people) started to flock to the site and turned it into what it is today. A large portion of Boyd’s article addresses how teenagers use MySpace as a means to create an image for themselves. For example, the more elaborate your background and layout is, the cooler you are. The more friends and pictures you have, the more social you are. I remember being extremely concerned with how others perceived me when I was younger, so I was constantly updating my MySpace with new pictures, information, and friends. Today, teenagers seem to want to make everything public: who they’re dating, where they are, what they’re doing. It is because of this, Boyd points out, that many parents are so against MySpace. On the site, many teenagers let it all hang out…they curse, post inappropriate pictures, and even bully other teens. What is it about the teens today that makes them want to publicize their entire lives?

I find Boyd’s article very interesting, especially because the 13-year-old me can relate to many of the topics. In my school, the number of MySpace friends on had determined one’s real-life popularity. Top 8’s defined and broke friendships. Sadly, much of social networking is still like this today. Even on Facebook, if a person only has 100 friends, we might think that they are not very popular. A “defriending” can lead to a whole mess of drama. Although I have a Facebook and Twitter, I strongly hope that our culture will start to become private again, but I do not think that it will ever happen in my lifetime.