Is There a Social Cyber Class?

Who knew there was such a variety of Social Network Sites (SNS) other than the infamous MySpace? Apparently, there are several others, and in her article "Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites"(http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1hargittai.html), Eszter Hargittai sets out to address the question of the potential systematic differences between SNS users and non-user, as well as why users choose one site over another.

In February and March of 2007, over 1,000 first year students from the University of Illinois participated in this study to evaluate how different kinds of people use online social network sites and their services. Not surprisingly, 88% of the participants are regular SNS users, and 74% use at least one particular site often. In fact, only one student in the survey had never heard of any of the six sites referenced in the research study. The six sites are Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, Friendster, Orkut, and Bebo. However, because of extremely low usage, Orkut and Bebo excluded from the data tables.

Facebook is uniquely different from the other sites in that it initially restricted membership to people with an affiliation to an institution of higher learning, clearly leveling out the demographic landscape. However, just recently, Facebook opened its membership to all users, perhaps to better compete with the newer and popular MySpace.

The results of the study showed that Facebook, MySpace, and Xanga sites have the highest hours of Internet usage. It also revealed specific relationships between race, ethnicity, and parental education as predictors of SNS usage. For instance, Xanga and Friendster are ranked as the leading SNS with Asian and Asian American students, perhaps due to their popularity in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysian, and Indonesia. In this study sample, Hispanic students are significantly more likely to use MySpace than their White counterparts. But most interestingly, students whose parents have lower levels of education are more likely to use MySpace, while students whose parents have higher levels of education are more likely to use Facebook as their social network.

To answer the question of whether or not there there is a Social Cyber Class, I would say there definitely is. Factors in deciding social network sites are no different than choosing the school one wishes to attend, or the person to date or marry, or the car to purchase, and so on. I agree with Eszter Hargittai that our online persona is merely a reflection of our offline identity.

Yvonne