In her luncheon series presentation last Tuesday at the Berkman
Center, fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Communications danah boyd mentioned that she had recently started to explore the class divisions between users of MySpace and Facebook. Yesterday, boyd released her preliminary thoughts in a blog essay:

"The division around MySpace and Facebook is just another way in which technology is mirroring societal values. Embedded in that is a challenge to a lot of our assumptions about who does what. The 'good' kids are doing more 'bad' things than we are willing to acknowledge (because they're the pride and joy of upwardly mobile parents). And, guess what? They're doing those same bad things online and offline. At the same time, the language and style of the 'bad' kids offends most upwardly mobile adults. We see this offline as well... When I see a divide like this, I worry because it reproduced the idea that the 'good' kids are good and that Facebook participation is good."

Much to her surprise, the essay provoked some strong reactions in the blogosphere, and the essay itself generated almost 160
comments and over 90,000 views overnight.

A podcast of danah's luncheon series talk has been posted on MediaBerkman. For more thoughtful analysis on danah's talk, as well as her essay, see Berkman fellow Ethan Zuckerman's blog where he shares his thoughts.