So, i'm the psycho child obsessively hanging out on MySpace all night and hanging out with teens during the day. (Oh, and dealing with the suited humans who want to ban the site and the press who wants to hype the fear factor.) This thread is amazing to come home to. Here's some data for you. Of the 58 million MySpace accounts, > 85% are American and about half are under 24 (aka "youth"). 300,000 are bands and the rest are "adults"... Of course, there are a lot of folks aged 100 who are actually teens. There are many different subcultures living under the same roof. MySpace is home to teens, musicians, porn divas (think Suicide Girls), artists, goths, emos, and all sorts of creatures of the club world. MySpace is common across the teenscape in the States, across socio- economic class, race and gender. It's accessed in schools and in homes (when possible). The kids who have Net access and aren't on it are primarily either 1) banned by school/parents; 2) "too cool for MySpace." They are mostly "mainstream" for whatever that means... at least they perceive the average MySpacer as mainstream, even if not themselves. What i'm finding is that they are facing many of the same consequences online that they've always faced offline. They are finding that gossip gets them into trouble, that sketchy people exist everywhere (especially in their peergroup), and that bullying uses whatever medium is available. They are finding that popularity moves smoothly between online and offline worlds, that coolness requires digital literacy, and that reciprocity is critical for bonding. They are using the site to hang out and share cultural bits like music, links, videos, etc. They definitely don't have a stigma attached to the Internet but most would rather be hanging out with their friends in physical space because it's more interesting. So they are acutely aware of the limitations for hanging out, but it's not about stigma. Often, they are on MySpace when their parents think they're doing homework or before/after dinner or when they're not allowed out. So they spend quite a bit of time bitching back and forth to each other. They recognize that IM is not the same as voice and depending on the teen, they prefer one medium to the other, but often not because of stigma, more preference. Older (academically minded) teens are recognizing the interruption problem with both phone and IM when they're trying to actually do something and they'll turn both off. [Do note: most teens leave their phones off most of the day because of school... they don't think it's necessary to have it on all the time, unlike most adults with mobiles.] I'm also seeing the sociable IM practices fade in college when youth have more freedom to gather and less interest in spending hours in front of their computer just cuz. A lot of what i'm seeing about "outgrowing" it comes from that - the opportunity to have other forms of socialization. For those with $, SMS is starting to replace it because they are mobile. All you can eat data plans are just starting to kick in. As for "addiction," remember that this is language that has always been used around moral panics when youth value what is being used but recognize that it's not accepted by adult culture. If you look at the diaries of the Lowell girls, they wrote extensively about the guilt they felt about reading all of the time... They talked about being addicted to the novels and expressed "guilty pleasures." So it doesn't surprise me that there's expressions of addiction, but it's not an addiction that most are actually fighting (as opposed to say heroin). Oh, and re: terminology... "The Internet" refers to Google (and what is found through it) to most of the teens i've been dealing with. There is email, IM, MySpace, (games if appropriate), and the Internet. I don't really hear "online" so much... i hear a lot more about "her profile" or "on MySpace" but not "online" per say. I would be very hesitant to draw too many parallels between Friendster and MySpace because they were invaded by very different populations and similar features were used very differently. The bulk of Friendster's population was the 20somethings who had a lot of mobility and freedom - their expressions via testimonials were very much meant to talk _about_ the owner while MySpace comments are often a dialogue between the two meant to be overheard. The networking component that was critical to Friendster because that group was looking to get laid is not that significant in MySpace - it's just a way to gather friends around. Far fewer people teens traverse the network than one might assume. There was a lot more sarcasm and irony in Friendster, in part because the early adopters were the geeks, freaks and queers who were damn fluent in subcultural language and used that for humorous expression in Friendster. The MySpace teens' expressions are much more rooted in what they mean to express than a meta-narrative of it. [If you want my ethnographic piece on Friendster, let me know - it's still in review.] MySpace is as connected to the offline as Facebook. It's just the difference between high schools and colleges for the most part now. One thing that is really affecting the dynamic is the fear of predators. Every day i hear from teens who are afraid of what's going on - they hear these reports and they're scared. They want to know if it's real. The latest high drama situation involved the disappearance of two neighbors, girls both named Alex. The mothers were all over the press screaming foul play, abduction, etc. They blamed MySpace and the press blamed them in turn. MySpace worked directly with law enforcement and fed me data for my engagements with the press today (i was to face the parents on NBC tonite). They were clearly banned from the site 10 days before they were "abducted" because they went from logging in hourly and sending messages frequently to suddenly stopping. Their profiles will covered with information about how much they loved each other (signaling a queer relationship with "bisexual" and with the language they were using). They found the girls this morning before i met the parents. They had run away to be with each other. They were brought back forcibly. :-( The attorney general of Connecticut is after MySpace for child endangerment after a child predator supposedly harmed numerous kids in his state; police have had no reports of any such predator. The number of actual abductions or sexual crimes that might even possibly be connected to MySpace currently numbers <10. 1% of all sex crimes against minors have anything to do with the Internet. There are more sex crimes against minors per day in the state of Connecticut than can be remotely connected to MySpace. And MySpace has a lot more kids than the state of Connecticut. The fearful hype is pretty intense right now - people are running pretty darn scared. What kills me is that the data doesn't support the hype - it is a pure moral panic. Of course, kids are being expelled on a regular basis for their participation on MySpace and some people aren't getting jobs. Of course, many are because of MySpace; a girl today told me about starting her music career there and finding that people actually like her music. Still, as we think about perception by teens, it's important to note that the scary press is doing more to shape perception of the Internet and addiction than anything else right now.... Anyhow, i hope some of this helps... danah - - - - - - - - - - d a n a h ( d o t ) o r g - - - - - - - - - - "taken out of context i must seem so strange" musings :: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts