Wherein Ms. Hegemonic takes a walk on the wild side and interviews some kids to support her sense that MySpace is where the “subalterns” gather and Facebook is for her peeps. Danah Boyd gathered her impressions and wrote an essay called Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace.
Writing from the perspective of a child of privilege, she was bound to get some criticism. She responds to that criticism here.
Can we throw out this junk now and get on with forming up for Ragnarök?
Technorati Tags: class war, children of privilege, literacy, laptops, lapdancer, lapland, Ragnarök, rock ‘n roll, burningman versus altamont, get a job, danah boyd
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Scruggs 07.26.07 at 10:48
Spacer, Frank, or Facer? Does a bull goose Spacer, yet still a subaltern, a freak and a true son of the internets soil, stand a chance against a mediocre, hegemonic Facer, whose will to power is augmented by a bodacious laptop, a decent credit rating and the best suburban broadband? These are the questions. The answers determine your place on the buffet table and how you will be eaten.
Me, I think I’m going to delete all my social networking accounts and hole up at UFOB. The winning move in this game is not to play.
Frank Paynter 07.26.07 at 11:37
“Spacer or Facer?” That indeed is the question danah asks. But as Randall Patrick McMySpace showed the Chief, the winning move is not to hole up but to bust out.
Scruggs 07.26.07 at 12:34
One of the commenters mentioned something about building social capital through the networking sites. Market mimicry on a meat rack is a very poor way to get fulfillment, but a sharpie could do a lot to build his personal brand with it. The apparent mutual benefits of participating in that scrum are still going to play out along the Hegemon/Subaltern lines, with most of the mobility within them determined long before the kids booted their boxes. Danah Boyd was right about that. In back of it all are the people making money off our eyeball time, none of whom have our interests at heart. Tossing dead squirrels at them as a free rider is fun for a while, but I have better dreams than settling for the syndicated content lifestyle.
ahfukit 07.26.07 at 3:25
Interesting. Nearly 100% unfamiliar with the SNS’s. I suppose many folks have had the thought that if you have A LOT of friends you’re probably doing something wrong? Or would that be “bad”?
Are you inferring from the bio on her site that she was a child of privilege, or…? There are a few clues in there, maybe, but she sure seems to present it as having clawed/competed her way up.
Charles Follymacher 07.26.07 at 5:25
Clearly, you need to drop by my place more often. Crumpets, if not strumpets almost daily.
Frank Paynter 07.26.07 at 7:08
Indeed, visits to the War on Folly invariably reveal current items of interest. And thank you for that, Charles.
ahf… not sure what an SNS is, but I’m guessing it has Social networking in it. TLAs always slow me down. If labeling danah as a child of privilege is an error, then I am even more impressed at how she has found just the right stepping stones out of mundane subaltern beginnings into expensive private education, into what passes for avant-garde bourgeois social participative performance art and naked summer camp, and finds herself among a set of innovators informed by academic and libertarian values.
Tree Shapiro 07.27.07 at 2:30
Hey “ahfukit” you ignorant slut, just read her fucking bio assclown. Just read her blog for fucksakes. DANAH BOYD is a RICH fucking hipster yuppie pretentious bitch who has the balls in her “a bitty auto-biography / a smattering of facts” to pretend she invented the notion of spelling her name in lower case letters. Clawing her way to the top? If you ever have anything even vaguely interesting to say I’ll donate 50 bucks to Peta. OMG I’m So Gay!
Find the links yourself you boring prick. Long Beach, Short Brain. The 8 ball’s a bitch.
ahfukit 07.28.07 at 1:31
Yes.
ahfukit 08.27.07 at 12:12
Hey, just so you know. She was not a child of privilege. I wrote and asked her specifically and she responded specifically and in detail. FWIW.
Frank Paynter 08.27.07 at 12:56
Well, sure. But I still haven’t figured out who ahfukit is. IMHO hearsay is of scant value, especially when filtered through anonymous assertion! I mean, just FWIW, IANAL, LOL etc. etc.
ahfukit 08.27.07 at 1:23
Understood.
Tree Shapiro 08.28.07 at 2:16
FWIW, ahfukit, would you be so kind and transparent as to pass “the conversation” you had with MS.BOYD onto Franklin? I think we can agree he will be fair and discreet. Because I don’t believe you for one nanosecond. I see you and I call.
ahfukit 08.28.07 at 4:20
You could short the circuit pretty easy, Tree. Her email addy is on her danah.org site.
Tree Shapiro 08.28.07 at 11:58
It’s “easily” actually. Whatever.
I have read an email exchange she’s had with an almost relative of mine. A youngster to whom she was incredibly and unnecessarily dismissive. All things considered… Her an expert and all.
I already know how full of shit DB is when she thinks no one but an insignificant minor is watching. I just want to see your (supposed) evidence to the contrary. Put your money where your mouth is, Sport. Or STFU.
ahfukit 08.29.07 at 7:37
It’s a point of principle about private communication. In this instance I choose to keep it private. A simple option exists to achieve the same end: email her. Why not, Tree?
Tree Shapiro 08.29.07 at 10:33
Because she’s a comment moderating asshat wearing bourgeois ani difranco listening pretentious clown who pretends to be interested in what “disenfranchised youth” have to say but in reality *refuses to “engage in conversation” with them because she’s too busy picking sand out of her ass at burningman? For starters.
*Documented. Fact.
Your words are meaningless. Ich hob mir fer pacht.
Point of Principle. *snort* Shnorrer.
ahfukit 08.29.07 at 12:23
But was she a child of privilege? Good night, Tree.