BigShinyThing

Despite all of the scare stories of recent weeks, MySpace really matters. Not least because it currently has over 50 million subscribers and more page views per day than any site on the web except Yahoo!

danah boyd, who has been tracking the site since its inception as a home to indie musics fans in Los Angeles, recently gave a talk which has been transcribed and linked to Boing Boing. It’s worth quoting great big chunks of the transcript here. From it, we learn of the site’s particular appeal to teenage participants (and hence the odd creepy man):

When MySpace was initially introduced, skeptics thought it would be just another fad because previous sites like Friendster had risen and crashed. Unlike the 20-somethings who invaded Friendster, the teens have more reason to participate in profile creation and public commentary. Furthermore, MySpace’s messaging is better suited for youths’ ansynchronous messaging needs. They can send messages directly from friends’ profiles and check whether or not their friends have logged in and received their email. Unlike adults, youth are not invested in email; their primary peer-to-peer communication occurs synchronously over Instant Messaging. Their use of MySpace is complementing that practice.

For most teens, [MySpace] is simply part of everyday life — they are there because their friends are there and they are there to hang out with their friends. Of course, its ubiquitousness does not mean that everyone thinks that it is cool. Many teens complain that the site is lame, noting that they have better things to do. Yet, even those teens have an account which they check regularly because it’s the only way to keep up with the Jones’s.

Boyd terms spaces such as MySpace ‘digital publics’ which unlike physical spaces — the bowling alley, the park bench — introduce a much broader group of peers:

While radio and mass media did this decades ago, MySpace allows youth to interact with this broader peer group rather than simply being fed information about them from the media. This highly beneficial for marginalised youth, but its effect on mainstream youth is unknown.

The biggest challenge is that, online, youth publics mix with adult publics. While youth are influenced by the media’s version of 20somethings, they rarely have an opportunity to engage with them directly. Just as teens are hanging out on MySpace, scenesters, porn divas and creatures of the night [hello UK electroclash scene!] are using MySpace to gather and socialise in the way that 20somethings do. They see the space as theirs and are not imagining that their acts are consumed by teens: they are certainly not targeted at youth. Of course, there *are* adults who want to approach teens and MySpace allows them to access youth communities without being visible, much to the chagrin of parents. Likewise, there are teens who seek the attention of adults, for both positive and problematic reasons.

That said, the majority of adults and teens have no desire to mix and mingle outside of their generation, but digital publics slam both together.

In conclusion, Boyd says,

Youth are not creating digital publics to scare parents – they are doing so because they need youth space, a place to gather and see and be seen by peers. Publics are critical to the coming-of-age narrative because they provide the framework for building cultural knowledge. Restricting youth to controlled spaces typically results in rebellion and the destruction of trust. Of course, for a parent, letting go and allowing youth to navigate risks is terrifying. Unfortunately, it’s necessary for youth to mature.

What we’re seeing right now is a cultural shift due to the introduction of a new medium and the emergence of greater restrictions on youth mobility and access. The long-term implications of this are unclear. Regardless of what will come, youth are doing what they’ve always done — repurposing new mediums in order to learn about social culture.

Technology will have an effect because the underlying architecture and the opportunities afforded are fundamentally different. But youth will continue to work out identity issues, hang out and create spaces that are their own, regardless of what technologies are available.

Boyd has also collaborated with Wired magazine to develop a ‘cheat sheet’ for parents to quell fears over MySpace and teens.