Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Cultural Logic of "Myspace or Facebook?" Analysis

After reading this article, http://moodle.csun.edu/file.php/30273/Implications_of_User_Choice_-_boyd.pdf  I felt like I could relate to what some of the teens were saying about why they made the switch but I will come back to this in a little.  My history with Myspace was a fairly short one.  I created an account after seeing both my older brothers going on, and so I thought it was so cool.  I went on as often as possible for about a week, then I assume one of my brothers told my dad about me having an account, and was having none of that.  He made me delete my account and told me I wasn't aloud on Myspace anymore because I was too young.  So for a couple years I never went on, and just heard stories of my friends talking about it, but when the time came that I was a little older then my brothers when they made a Myspace account, and I thought I was old enough, I made another account.  I thought I was so cool, because I had my own page people could go to and talk with me, and I spent a whole night looking for a perfect picture to set as my background, IT WAS DOPE!  This time I probably lasted maybe three months, then my dad caught wind that I was logging on again, and he flipped out again.  This didn't makE any sense to me because I was older then my brothers were, and he didn't care the slightest that they had a Myspace, and got on regularly.  So once again, I had to delete my account, but this time it hurt more because I spent so much time making it perfect.  Then lots of time pasts and I hear of a site called Facebook.  I hesitated to make an account for about a year, then Junior year of high school came and I thought "How am I going to keep in touch with all my Senior friends who are going off to college?"  You already know that I felt I REALLY needed Facebook for this.  So I made an account and made an account, and set up my profile page, which was surprisingly a lot easier to do then on Myspace.  This time I was sure to tell my brothers not to tell dad.  I logged on for about a year, and told my mom that I had made an account so she wouldn't be surprised if my dad found out.  Needless to say, I should've known that she would tell my dad.  So my dad found out and lectured me for about an hour about it, and still said I was too young.  At this point I pretty much said this is BS, and just continued logging on, and didn't really care what he thought anymore.  So still to this day, even as I type, I have Facebook open in another tab. :P  So after that story it is obvious that I didn't have the "normal" experience with social networking sites.  After all is said and done with Myspace and I, I see where the teens in the article were coming from.  I see why one might say it is a "ghetto'er" site then Facebook, because most the people I knew who were on Myspace alot at the time, were the type of people who tried acting "ghetto" all the time, and were always listening to rap or hip hop constantly.  Myspace was definitely, and too this day I believe is still better then Facebook with the whole music page thing.  My friend Travis and I started a band, and we made a band page on both sites.  While the one on Facebook gets a ton more views then the Myspace one, the Myspace one was a lot easier to make.  Now when it comes to profile pages, my Myspace page was tricked out top to bottom.  Myspace definitely allowed more customization of profile pages, but I felt it was extremely difficult to set up and use.  Facebook on the other hand allows very little customization of profile pages, but are extremely easy to set up and use.  On Facebook my profile is set up with profile pictures, which all depict me in a decent manner, are visible to everyone, while my more "wild" personal pictures can only be viewed by friends.  Also my post can only be seen by friends.  I do this so that people can see who I am before they send a friends request just to make sure they know me.  I believe it is also very important to self regulate what you post online, and what is posted about you and meant for you.

1 comment:

  1. It's interesting how the word "ghetto" becomes associated with a lifestyle and certain mannerisms. I notice the way people talk, act, or what music they listen to can become termed as ghetto. Do you think this at all problematic? Why?

    Think about what a ghetto is and why a ghetto exists. People on Facebook listen to Rap music, but why are some considered ghetto and others not? The ghetto, which is another name for economically dilapidated neighborhood, has been transformed to a lifestyle and has become almost mythical. Often rappers who have made songs about the ghetto become famous and fantasized about what was and what they have now (mansions, cars, money).

    Certainly ghetto means something different in the states, but these neighborhoods have different terms around the world, even if they are characteristically the same. Jews lived in ghettos during WW2, a consequence of the Nazis. What makes the idea of a ghetto interesting in a social network like MySpace or Facebook is the projection of ghetto. No actual ghetto exists online, but it projects a reality that its users are somehow ghetto.

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