How the Real Influences Online Self
One critical factor in shaping the content posted on social media or even the selection of which media tool to use is due to societal pressures of the real. Relays in friend networks especially are a huge impact on the decisions teens make, as well as the different norms and values that teens were raised by. The distinct split between MySpace and Facebook occurred in 2006-2007 because of the different backgrounds and “network structures of teen friendship” (boyd 4), which are directly connected to racial differences and class divisions. Stephanie describes more about race socially here. Teens identify MySpace as “ghetto” (boyd 2) and a social division emerges in the digital, just as it already existed in schools. For instance, Kat, a fourteen year old teenager, attends a school that is divided by race and class—poor students and students of different color versus the white students from wealthier backgrounds. The creation of Facebook lured many users from MySpace, mostly white students and Asians who associated Facebook with the elite. Hispanics and African Americans remained with MySpace. “Subculturally identified teens appeared more frequently drawn to MySpace while more mainstream teens tended towards Facebook [and] teens from less-privileged backgrounds seemed likely to be drawn to MySpace while those headed towards elite universities appeared to be head towards Facebook” (boyd 9). The real is able to insert itself into social media and, therefore, have the power to control the way humans interact with each other online because of the norms and values that exist outside of the digital. As a result, online environments are organized in the same way as schools: “by identity and social categories” (boyd 15) because of the real’s capacity to bleed into the digital world. Anna expounds more about the social power that exists not only in the real but also many aspects of the virtual world.
Social network sites provide another space where the youth can congregate and socialize with each other because “teens join social network sites to be with their friends” (boyd 16). When one friend joins a network such as Facebook, it encourages another to join as well. As a result, online communities reflect the social divisions that prevail in real life friendships. The same friends are assembled in a space where they interact with people of the same class because they have the same values and norms. The youth, therefore, are drawn to styles that mirror their identities, which is why the wealthy prefer the minimalistic style of Facebook that enforces cleanliness whereas other races prefer the flashy, ostentatious style of MySpace and find that more appealing. The different norms and backgrounds of teens in the real contribute to the different identities they have, which in turn shape their different tastes in digital social media sites.
Works Cited:
Boyd, Danah. It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. N.p.: n.p., 2014. Print.
Boyd, Danah. "White Flight in Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook." (2011): 203-22. Web.
Marwick, Alice. "Instafame: Luxury Selfies in The Attention Economy." Public Culture 27:1, 137-160.