June 26, 2007
A recent study performed by Ph.D. student Danah Boyd and covered by BBC News has determined that there is a “sharp division along class lines among the American teenagers flocking to the social network sites.” Boyd claims that Facebook users are primarily from wealthier homes and have a greater chance of attending college, whereas MySpace users graduate high school and go straight into the workforce.
As a college graduate and early adopter of Facebook (in 2004), I could definitely see that. But there are other factors at play here that may not necessarily have been considered when Boyd began her studies.
Initial audience. While MySpace was immediately open to all users, Facebook attracted college students first from the most prestigious universities. Why did I join in 2004? It was a real private but promising social network. Early adopters felt that the most elite students were given a sneak peek to the social site that would soon blossom.
And it kept getting bigger, but only for college kids.
I think this actually had a substantial effect on Facebook attracting the “wealthier, college-bound” crowd.
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June 21, 2007
Today, DazzlinDonna wrote a very timely piece on social network spammers. It’s been so applicable lately as I’m beginning to be befriended by anyone and everyone on just about every social network.
In the past several weeks, my Twitter accounts have been friended up by porn solicitors and people looking to market websites that I’m just not interested in. My Flickr friends, on the other hand, are only friending up people who are obviously female. And let’s not forget MyBlogLog spam, though it’s gotten much better lately, and Orkut spam.
I got my first bit of Facebook spam in December. Today, it overflowed to the friend realm. These look like link exchange emails. Here’s my most recent friend request:
Hi happy
nice meet to you
i am randomly invitation through your friend
i want to have a good friend
thank you.
Thanks… but uh, no thanks.
(On a similar note, I got a bit of Digg spam lately too in the form of comments on my blog:
Really, thanks for spamming your story. Most stories on Digg, however, get promoted within the initial 24 hours, not 5 days later.
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Tamar Weinberg is a social media enthusiast with a passion for all things tech and productivity. She provides consulting in internet marketing and manages Community Support & Advertising at Mashable. Tamar is also the author of The New Community Rules (July 2009).
Ever since I was a pre-teen (it’s really been that long), I was immersed in social media to some extent. From chat rooms to forums to instant messaging and now to web 2.0 sites and social networks, I’ve been through it all — from alpha, to beta, to final — and then some. I’m at the point where I am bewildered by the amount of people joining and wondering if I should let everyone have access to every part of my life — since right now, most (all?) of it is online. This issue has become a lot more prevalent as I see people 
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