Social Networking Sites May Foster Same Old Divisions
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The social networking site of choice is related to a student’s race, ethnicity and parents’ education, a new survey indicates.
The finding “suggests there’s less intermingling of users from varying backgrounds on these sites than previously believed,” said study leader Eszter Hargittai of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University in Illinois.
Hargittai surveyed more than 1,000 freshmen from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Results show:
* Caucasian students prefer Facebook.
* Hispanic students prefer MySpace.
* Asian and Asian-American students were more likely than others to “socialize” on Xanga and Friendster. They also used Facebook.
* Asian and Asian-American students are least likely to use MySpace.
Parents’ education level was also found to impact choice of social networking site. Students whose parents had college degrees more often reported Facebook and Xanga use compared with students with non-college-degree parents. (Facebook requires a valid e-mail ID that is associated with certain colleges, universities and other institutions.)
MySpace users were skewed toward students with parents having less than a high-school education than those with even some college experience (with or without achieving a college degree).
In some ways, the results suggest that rather than bringing all walks of life onto a level playing field, the Internet’s social networking sites might just be fostering more of the same barriers found in real life.
For instance, college students living with their parents (and are already less connected with other students) were less likely to use Facebook than their on-campus peers.
{snip}
The study is published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
[Editor’s Note: “Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites,” by Eszter Hargittai, can be read here.]
(Posted on December 5, 2007)
Abstract: Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites
Hargittai, E. (2007). Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 14.
Eszter Hargittai
Communication Studies and Sociology
Department of Communication Studies
2240 Campus Dr., Evanston, IL 60208
Northwestern University
jcmc07@webuse.org
Are there systematic differences between people who use social network sites and those who stay away, despite a familiarity with them? Based on data from a survey administered to a diverse group of young adults, this article looks at the predictors of SNS usage, with particular focus on Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, and Friendster. Findings suggest that use of such sites is not randomly distributed across a group of highly wired users. A person’s gender, race and ethnicity, and parental educational background are all associated with use, but in most cases only when the aggregate concept of social network sites is disaggregated by service. Additionally, people with more experience and autonomy of use are more likely to be users of such sites. Unequal participation based on user background suggests that differential adoption of such services may be contributing to digital inequality.
Comments
What about blacks?
Posted by JT Rocks The Spot at 6:52 PM on December 5
Each social site has its own personality, and people will gravitate accordingly because personality is largely genetic.
I have been spending a lot of time on the Disney boards because I appreciate the positive energy going on over there and now buy their publications instead. I burned out on hearing all the bashing of white women on American Renaissance while I knew that the other way around would not be tolerated for a minute; and if I thought double standards like that were okay about gender, I would probably have found them okay about race and thus never have joined American Renaissance in the first place.
Posted by Mary at 6:54 PM on December 5
“Facebook requires a valid e-mail ID that is associated with certain colleges, universities and other institutions.”
This is no longer true: anyone with a valid email address may now open an account on Facebook. In fact, the college limitation has been gone for well over a year now, so there’s no excuse for making an error like this. It took me all of 10 seconds to find the facts on wikipedia - is that too much to ask of reporters these days?
Posted by Dave at 7:04 PM on December 5
What about Blacks? Did the researchers not include any in their survey? This begs for an explanation.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 7:10 PM on December 5
What drives these people to perform such research? Do they cry themselves to sleep at night fretting over people making rational decisions about choosing friends? What exactly is the problem? Am I supposed to make my daily social life unbearable by interacting with people who are different from me? Making friends and being with friends is safe harbor from the chaos of the world. Friendship is a kind of very personal therapy meant to give us comfort not conflict.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 7:25 PM on December 5
“digital inequality”
OMG! Excuse me while I laugh myself silly. DIGITAL INEQUALITY! Haahahahahaaa!
These die-hard race-baiters are even going to drag their old-school, tired, worn-out “That’s Racial Discrimination!” into cyberspace.
It’s all too funny - until participating in “digital inequality” becomes a hate crime…
Posted by at 8:01 PM on December 5
People PREFER their own kind. Only Whites, who must suffer an onslaught of non-Whites in their home countries are denied this most basic, primeval right of all.
Posted by at 8:19 PM on December 5
People have got to figure out where they fit.
And, egalitarians notwithstanding, people do fit in certain niches. It is no good telling Taurus that he can fit in with the violin players and flutists. And don’t tell Daniel that he can run with the bigs dogs on the football field, if he applies himself.
As a Christian, I believe that God has given people certain limits, individually as well as racially.
“From one man He created all races of men, and made them live over the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live.” (Acts 17:26) These places were not only physical; they were also mental. Like associates with like—physical as well as mental.
Boundaries of countries, which were limits, have been broken, but people still seek out their own kind, and races have clusters of characteristics.
The egalitarians believe that all men are equal, in everything.
And the egalitarian leaders, of course, are quite a bit more equal than you or I.
Posted by at 8:32 PM on December 5
Well, I guess that’s true for me. I live with my Mom, who only has a business school degree, and not a college degree, and I use My Space. It’s been great and I’ve reconnected with lots of people from high school, many of whom grew up! My Space is also how I keep in contact with my darling Dave…in addition to email, IM, phone, and of course, text messaging!
Posted by Jacqui in AZ at 1:21 AM on December 6
Digital inequality? My God, what a word. Will there be ethnic quotes introduced for every site?
Posted by EW at 6:06 AM on December 6
Each social site has its own personality, and people will gravitate accordingly because personality is largely genetic.
I have been spending a lot of time on the Disney boards because I appreciate the positive energy going on over there and now buy their publications instead. I burned out on hearing all the bashing of white women on American Renaissance while I knew that the other way around would not be tolerated for a minute; and if I thought double standards like that were okay about gender, I would probably have found them okay about race and thus never have joined American Renaissance in the first place.
Posted by Mary at 6:54 PM on December 5
In a way White men get bashed all the time on this website.Any time there is a story about “diversity training” several posters will comment on the weakness of White men not standing up to this stuff.
Posted by NordicPhile at 1:38 PM on December 6
When I was in college, I took a computer class called, I think, “Virtual Communities,” and there was only one black guy in the class, who never or rarely came to class at all, but finally showed up for the final project presentation.
Each student was supposed to have created a networking site of his own—specifically designed utilizing the tools we learned throughout the sem., to present to the whole class.
Not only did his presentation completely ignore any of the rules of the project, he obviously just showed us a site on which he or some other friends of his were selling “Pokemons.” It was rife with obvious spelling errors, clearly took no original effort by virtue of the assingment, and the rest of the class just pretty much sat in stunned silence afterward.
Of course the white female professor was afraid of him, so he probably passed with flying colors.
That’s diversity at state colleges, folks.
Just curious, if anyone knows any stats on artistic ability and race? I mean aside from Murray’s book? I work at a state college art school, the larger university of which is quite diverse, but the art department remains like almost 100 percent white. I m thinking natural talent for art requires a high visuo-spatial intelligence? I can’t think of more than one or two great African American painters and, even that’s a stretch to remember the names.
Posted by galaxia at 1:42 PM on December 6
digital inequality? I heard it all now.
Posted by watfordman at 2:30 PM on December 6
“From one man He created all races of men, and made them live over the whole earth. He himself fixed beforehand the exact times and the limits of the places where they would live.” (Acts 17:26)
Posted by at 8:32 PM on December 5
Not to disagree with your overall commentary, but which version of the bible did you recite from? The reason I ask is that New International version, Acts 17:26 states: “From one man he made every nation of men, and they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”
In the NIV Bible it does not use the words “races” or “limits”, and uses the word “should” instead of “would”.
It IS a great verse however, and based on, “and he determined…the exact places where they should live” it certainly seems that God himself agrees with separatism. Our God is a wise God, no?
Posted by Cop at 2:42 PM on December 6
MySpace was originally mostly white until it got really huge. Then the black faces started showing up in conspicuous numbers all at once. Then the advertising went heavily hip-hop and black oriented. It was about at that time that Facebook took off. Just the typical scenario of whites on their own creating something very popular and blacks force their way in and whites go elsewhere to start all over again.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 2:50 PM on December 6
From my personal qualitative assessment, blacks that use social networking sites break heavily for MySpace. BlackPlanet is a MySpace-like setup aimed at blacks, but it has gone downhill recently.
In some ways, the results suggest that rather than bringing all walks of life onto a level playing field, the Internet’s social networking sites might just be fostering more of the same barriers found in real life.
It’s not just social networking sites. There has been a long-running debate among WNs and RRs about how the internet itself would affect the nationalism vs internationalism pendulum, with Sam Francis thinking that it would hasten the latter. My take on it is that it is working both ways.
An article I read several years ago claims that the internet is making every place more alike and every place more like itself, simultaneously. It cited Bouldergrad, Coloradiaztlan, as an example of an already left-wing city that is becoming more and more crazy left because the word got “out there” about how great Bouldergrad was for left-wingers.
Posted by St. Louis CofCC Blogmeister at 3:34 PM on December 6
Cop—
The version I quoted from was the old “Good News for Modern Man,”
approved by the Translations Committee of the American Bible Society.
Posted by at 5:01 PM on December 6
AmRen, more than one white woman has been driven away from your site because of WW bashing. Why don’t you take the hint? How are you going to achieve white solidarity without white women? At least give the white women an equal voice with the white men.
Posted by at 6:04 PM on December 6
“I burned out on hearing all the bashing of white women on American Renaissance while I knew that the other way around would not be tolerated for a minute”
posted by Mary
……………………………………….
I remember you Mary. And your touching letter saying good-bye. [Mary Simas, was it?] You sounded like a very nice person.
Some bashing is still going on, but please be assured that it is NOT representative of the majority of us.
Nice to hear from you again!
Posted by ghw at 8:56 PM on December 6
“Just curious, if anyone knows any stats on artistic ability and race? I can’t think of more than one or two great African American painters and, even that’s a stretch to remember the names. “
Posted by galaxia
“Great” African-American painters….? Hmmm.
This is a joke, right? I can’t think of ANY!
Posted by voter at 9:11 PM on December 6
I am on this site because my friend forwarded something to me about a map of where blond people live. She is not blond. I am though. She is incredibly protective of white people and is outraged at blonde jokes because she says that she resents the double standards in hurting people.
Somebody here mentioned diversity training. I didn’t even know what it was until I heard her call it blue-eyed devils training. She has fought hard to stop this and was very angry that it is so often aimed at children she feels are much too young even if this could be justified with adults. She wondered how white children were supposed to learn to treat others the way they would like to be treated when that is so often the first rule that gets broken on them.
She told me not to read the comments on the blond map article because even here on American Renaissance digs were being taken at blonde women. It is tempting to look right now.
Posted by Ginny at 11:49 PM on December 6
He was referring to spray painters (the kind that comes in a can).
Posted by uncle cremus at 1:19 AM on December 7
“How are you going to achieve white solidarity without white women? At least give the white women an equal voice with the white men.
Posted by at 6:04 PM on December 6”
This is very, very important. Please do not dismiss it lightly. Some time ago, Cop posted a comment about how hard it is for white men to live up to our responsibilities when we are not supported by our women. Gentlemen, our women are absolutely crucial to our cause. If you haven’t already read it, please download Roger Devlin’s excellent article “Sexual Utopia in Power” from theoccidentalquarterly.com/archives/vol6no2/DevlinTOQV6N2.pdf.
I often boast that I am a sexist. This doesn’t mean that I hate women, or regard them as inferior. It means that I don’t think that they are the same as men, a fact for which I am eternally grateful. I recognise that they have abilities that men don’t have, even while I maintain that they don’t belong in the workplace. I respect, even revere them for their particular abilities. Let’s face it, we are nothing without them.
That said, we have a responsibility to step up to the plate when it’s our turn. And one of the things that is our responsibility is this thing that posters keep slamming women for. I think the kind of thing that Mary is referring to is the complaint that white women prefer black men. If so, whose fault is it?
It goes back to the Devlin article. Read his final line; if we don’t rediscover marriage, we will go under. We have to start holding ourselves, and our women, to higher standards of behaviour. If white women understand that “once you go black, you can never go back”; if they understand that a decision to date a black man is a lifelong decision; they will understand that their curiosity or fashionable posturing closes doors that are important to them.
And ladies, don’t be so sensitive. If a male poster says that white women prefer blacks, and you don’t prefer blacks, then he’s not talking about you. What he really wants is for you to say that you prefer whites. We all need a little encouragement. And blonde jokes are only jokes, nobody seriously believes that blondes are dumb. Instead of feeling insulted, learn to laugh at yourselves, and maybe even learn a few good jokes to tell, yourselves.
Finally, a word of appreciation to the women who post here. Your posts are generally insightful and logical, and I appreciate them. In particular, margaret’s posts are always so far beyond merely “right”, they take my breath away. Also Voir Dire, lydia, Schoolteacher(?), many others. Thank you all.
Posted by at 3:50 AM on December 8
Posted by at 3:50 AM on December 8
Thank YOU for your most thoughtful comments. I agree wholeheartedly with your insights on poster “Margaret.” “Bonbon” too (and yes, many and all others) is one of the exemplary female posters AmRen is blessed with. I am SO encouraged to see more and more women aboard.
I don’t think I’ve read anything in the 8 - 9 months I’ve been posting here that I would construe as routine “women bashing.” Christian bashing is a different story… Even if true, I would defend your right to say it. This is after all a debate forum, anyone can respond to anything one takes issue with, and what is AmRen’s adopted motto after all? I believe it to be an apt virtue to which all should aspire. I’ve written particularly harsh things about blacks which may, on occassion, be over the top. We haven’t had freedom of speech for at least 70 years in this country if not longer, and being able to communicate freely is like finding the proverbial rare spring in a parched desert climate.
I’ve never seen White women’s IQ’s plotted or differentiated separately from White males, and doubtless we fall all across the bell curve spectrum like everyone else. But I suspect that while there are many White women on the higher curve, I don’t believe as many White women have as high of IQ’s as do White men.
I am one of the few female writers who has pointed out that but for AA practises women would not be the majorities in medical and engineering schools. Author Martin Gross (“Conspiracy of Ignorance”) is the only writer I’m aware of who pointed out research of how much lower women score on the MCAT than do White men and unfairly gain admissions that should rightfully go to men. Naturally (always dire consequences with social engineering) women typically go into only four specialties of medicine - none of them surgery and leaving us with a crisis in certain specialties as those older white males retire or die. That so little has been written or researched separately regarding female IQ’s either points to the triumph of radical egalitarianism or reinforces the goodness of our White men in sparing us from truthful IQ research about ourselves. After all, witness what happened to Harvard’s Larry Summers after truthfully broaching that topic.
I don’t think it’s any accident that while there are brilliant, outstanding female writers and I am fans of many, virtually all of my favorite writers are White men.
Moreover, I am still waiting for our long list of earth-shattering inventions and groundbreaking research awards. I believe in truths even if those truths don’t always spare someone’s hypersensitivies about genuine differences.
Having said that, I believe that White women are as unique and critical to Western civilization as are our White men, altruistic and generous to a fault and possibly our own demise, and perfect complements to our highly intelligent, benevolent
White men.
The feminist movement was just another tool advocated by Cultural Marxist founder Antonio Gramski and later implemented into American Universities by the likes of Foucault and Marcuse to destroy America. Too many women bought into it.
Will definitely check out your recommended reading by Devlin. Thanks again.
Posted by Voir Dire at 7:19 PM on December 8