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yojitani

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 28, 2005
1,858
10
An octopus's garden
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6236628.stm

OK. so the gist of the 'research' the BBC is presenting here is that "research suggests those using Facebook come from wealthier homes and are more likely to attend college.

By contrast, MySpace users tend to get a job after finishing high school rather than continue their education."

It would seem to me that this has more to do with university demographics than it does with the sites themselves, after all Facebook was only opened to everyone last September. Before that it was just for university students... This seems like flawed research to me. Any thoughts MR users, especially since there seem to be many here much younger, and therefore more pertinent to the research, than me?

YT
 
I think Ms. Boyd has over-analysed the whole thing. Like yojitani pointed out, Facebook was originally developed exclusively for university students and was only recently opened to the public. Is it any wonder that more university students tend to use it?

I would be more interested in a study of class divides within a given social networking site, rather than apparent class divides between different sites. Many of my friends from high school who didn't go on to college or university use Facebook anyway, so I think Boyd should instead look for signs of smaller sub-networks of friends on Facebook and then find some way of determining their "class". A sub-network could be defined as many shared friends within a particular sample, bounded by bottleneck connections to the outside (other friends, etc.). Only problem with that is that you'd probably need pretty intimate and unrestricted access to Facebook's database, which I'm sure they won't give out easily :eek:
 
That seems like an illegitimate study. I didn't even know facebook was even open to non-college students. Thats like polling at a Mc Donald's in front of a housing project, and then going to a coffee shop at a college. Most myspace users are 13 year old girls, most facebook users are 18+, since most came on to facebook before this ban was lifted.
 
agreed that its flawed due to Facebook's original purpose. along with it, facebook also is designed for students more or less. with breaks in mind, and allowing them as your 'region/location' and allowing you to share your class info and find others in that class. in other words, it was designed for students. so of course there is some difference in demographics.

now we can all let out a resounding "duh!"
 
... and those that avoid MySpace and Facebook altogether are more intelligent, wealthier, higher-class individuals with real social lives? ;)
 
LOLZERS! THIS LADY IS SO STOOPID!!!

Is she going to find that more white people are members of Facebook because more white people go to uni in America? Ooops....I don't want to give her any more research ideas, now do I.

But yes, I go to uni, and I have a FaceBook account. :)
 
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