Re: White Flight from MySpace to Facebook

So the way to not make Facebook about Race is to make the decision to join
and use Facebook about Race? "Truly, your logic is dizzying."

Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |


On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 11:00 PM, Peter T. Chattaway <
petert-LOVM4QxV+tDq6eQxt3vRmLDks+cytr/[email protected]> wrote:

> Heh.  One of the commenters notes that Facebook already made the "Stuff
> White People Like" list over two years ago.
>
> - - -
>
>
> http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/11/white-flight-from-myspace-to-facebook.html
>
> by Steve Sailer
> Wednesday, November 10, 2010
>
> Here's a scholarly article by danah boyd (e.e. cumming-like lack of
> capitalization intentional) called White Flight in Networked Publics? How
> Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook.
> It's based on a lot of interviews with teens. For example, one white boy
> pointed out that MySpace's tools for customization to bling up their sites
> drove off more cultured teens:
>
>    "These tools gave MySpacers the freedom to annoy as much as they
> pleased. Facebook was nice because it stymied such annoyance, by limiting
> individuality. ... The MySpace crowd felt caged and held back because they
> weren't able to make their page unique."
>
> Unfortunately, it's one of those academic articles which could be about 50%
> shorter if danah didn't have to constantly puff up the possibility that the
> universally perceived differences on average between the races might just be
> one giant mass delusion. We're not talking about reality, you see, just
> perceptions of reality and perceptions of perceptions of reality.
>
> Like the lack of bling on Facebook, that kind of Occam's Butterknife talk
> is a marker of respectable academic discourse about race: No, we don't find
> race interesting, we find our perceptions of other people's perceptions
> about race interesting. We try to make our interest in it as uninteresting
> as possible by padding our writing out with endless meta-ness. (We wouldn't
> want any MySpacers reading our articles, now would we?)
>
> - - -
>
> http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/07/31/106-facebook/
>
> #106 Facebook
>
> July 31, 2008 by clander
>
> Social Networking sites have been embraced by white people since their
> inception. Because these sites use profile pages, white people can more
> efficiently judge friends and future friends on their taste in film, books,
> music, and inspirational quotes. Advanced level white people, fearful of
> being judged on their tastes from last week, will often only list one or two
> ironic things as their favorites. For example under music they would simply
> list "P.M. Dawn" or under films they would choose only Armageddon. In both
> cases these ironic answers serve as protective shields from the harsh gaze
> of other white people.
>
> However, it is important to remember that the "where" is often as important
> as the "who" when it comes to social networking. As noted in earlier posts,
> white people are obsessed with being in the right neighborhood and the
> Internet is no exception.
>
> In the early days, white people joined a social networking service called
> Friendster where they could connect with old friends and make new ones.
> Eventually, white people started to notice more and more of their friends on
> MySpace, so they closed their Friendster accounts and migrated to the new
> service. It was like living in a neighborhood that was pretty good but kind
> of far away, so you might have to miss out on a few parties. Needless to
> say, this was unacceptable.
>
> For a brief period of time, MySpace was the site where everyone kept their
> profile and managed their friendships. But soon, the service began to
> attract fake profiles, the wrong kind of white people, and struggling
> musicians. In real world terms, these three developments would be equivalent
> to a check cashing store, a TGIFridays, and a housing project. All which
> strike fear in the hearts of white people.
>
> White people were nervous but had nowhere else to go. Then Facebook came
> along and offered advanced privacy settings, closed networks, and a clean
> interface. In respective real world terms, these features are analogous to
> an apartment or house with a security system/doorman, an alumni dinner, and
> a homeowners association that protects the aesthetics of the neighborhood.
> In spite of these advances, some white people still clung to their old
> MySpace accounts. That was until they learned that Facebook started, like so
> many things beloved by white people, at Harvard.
>
> Within a matter of months, MySpace had gone from a virtual utopia to
> Digital Detroit, where only minorities and indie bands remain.
>
> If you plan on befriending white people, it is essential that you join them
> in the digital suburbs and open a Facebook account immediately. It's also a
> good idea to make up a story about how someone from high school sent you a
> friend request and after accepting you discovered that they were fat and
> unsuccessful. White people love these stories.
>
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