EDUC 628-Spring-08

I don’t know if I said that right or not, but I have gone through all the posts—and I seldom do that.  I decided that I would devote today to doing that (I am only subbing currently, and had the day off) so I could touch base with about everyone because I am going to concentrate, for the remainder of this class on my ethnography and on finishing Stoll’s book.

also, I ran across this post by Taly Weiss with some interesting information about MySpace and Facebook, where Taly gives reference to some other research links regarding SNS, as well as some insight into Dana Boyd’s observations regarding the history of the two SNS, and  hooks us up to Dana’s  essay, Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace.  I haven’t read her essay yet, as I am saving that for my research day.

Weiss indicates pewinternet, and iprospect as other research sites, and gives a short version for Danah Boyds’ observations: 

1. Historical perspective: 2003-2007

• When MySpace launched in 2003, it was primarily used by 20/30-somethings The bands began populating the site by early 2004 and throughout 2004, the average age slowly declined. It wasn’t until late 2004 that teens really started appearing en masse on MySpace and 2005 was the year that MySpace became the “in thing” for teens.
• Facebook launched in 2004 as a Harvard-only site. It slowly expanded to welcome people with .edu accounts from a variety of different universities. In mid-2005, Facebook opened its doors to high school students, but it wasn’t that easy to get an account because you needed to be invited. As a result, those who were in college tended to invite those high school students that they liked. Facebook was strongly framed as the “cool” thing that college students did. So, if you want to go to college (and particularly a top college), you wanted to get on Facebook badly. Even before high school networks were possible, the moment seniors were accepted to a college, they started hounding the college sysadmins for their .edu account. The message was clear: college was about Facebook.

This blog was written I July of 2007, so things have changed some since, but I think it is a good resource if your doing your ethnography of either SNS.

….I’m done blogging today