Cruisin the Strip: The Metaphors of MySpace

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Cruisin the StripThe Metaphors of MySpace (
Facebook)

• Matt Barton
• _at_GPACW
• http//mattbarton.net
• mdbarton_at_stcloudstate.edu

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_Quick Facts MySpace

• Founded June 2003 by Tom Anderson and Chris
  DeWolfe
• For friends students singles families
  business people co-workers study
  partnersAnyone over 14.
• 230000 new registrations daily
• 3rd most popular site in the US
• Now owned by Rupert Murdoch (purchased in July
  2005 for 580 million)

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_MySpace The Tools

• Add videos popular songs
• More flexible layouts but sloppier Looks
  ghetto.
• A hotbed for spyware and phishing schemes.
  (Vauhini Vara)
• If someone tries to friend you
• If its a picture of someone fairly attractive
  theyre probably not my friend in real life. (VV)

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_Quick Facts Facebook

• Founded Feb. 4 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg Dustin
  Moskovitz Chris Hughes
• For high school corporate non-profit military
  geographic communitiesprimarily in English
  countries.
• Over 10 million registered users across 40000
  regional work college and high schools
• 7th most popular site in the US.
• 20000 new accounts daily.
• 85 of college students have a profile.

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Facebook The Tools

• Photos
• Upload unlimited images and tag them for easy
  searching
• The Wall
• Easily post a short message to a friends profile
  page.
• Poke
• Let someone know youve been looking at their
  page.

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_Key Questions

• Why are these sites so popular with our students
• How can we teach these sites so that students
  dont ruin their ethos and put themselves in
  danger
• How can these sites help us teach students useful
  skills
• How do these sites remediate older and more
  traditional teenage activities

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_social minds S. Turkle

• The Internet has become a significant social
  laboratory for experimenting with the
  constructions and reconstructions of self that
  characterize postmodern life.
• What kinds of personae do we create
• Whats the relationship between these personae
  and the old-fashioned notion of the whole
  person
• Are we watching the slow emergence of a new more
  multiple style of thinking about the mind

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_Social Networking F. Stutzman

• Facebook isnt going awayA service like it will
  always be present and useful on a college
  campus.
• Students are forced to re-negotiate their social
  networks every semester. Facebook helps.
• Getting to know peoplewithout their knowledge
  of coursecan be a particularly useful tool
  during the first few weeks of freshmen year.

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_Shallow Identities

• How is your identity represented
• Images of yourself and friends ( tags)
• About Me fields such as Relationship Status
  Politics Religious Views Favorite Movie
  Educational Background Hometown
• Which Groups you join
• The way you use the site ( how often)
• Which position you occupy in the network

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_Just be yourself like everybody else!

• As far as my page goes its more of a
  representation of a different persona thats
  basically an extension of myself. (V2RC)
• My myspace page represents me better because I
  put up quiz results from different sites. (HK)
  
• If u saw my pictures u might think I was popular
  with women yet most women run away from the
  wikimaster. (CK)

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_Fakesters C. Rosen

• Its no surprise that people who use networks
  like Facebook have a tendency to describe
  themselves like products.
• D. Itzkoff These sites violate the social
  contract people make when they meet in person.
• Please your friendships are as transparent as a
  vacuum. (AA)
• Facebook is a façade. (AA)

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Yeah but

• Facebook and MySpace are remediations of other
  high school traditions
• Yearbooks
• Cruisin the Strip
• Youth Slang
• Smokin in the Boys Room
• Popularity Contests/Cliques/Hazing
• Alleged indifference towards all of the above.

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_Yearbooks

• Instead of collecting signatures in Yearbooks
  students collect friends
• Although some are selective many strive to
  collect as many names as possible (Facebook
  sluts).
• Writing on the wall is much like writing little
  messages in a yearbook.
• Yearbooks also define students based on their
  face self-selected groups and popularity.

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_Cruisin

• Instead of riding up and down a street in a car
  with a bunch of friends
• Perform searches check out friends of friends
  check out cool people recommended by the site
  poke like a car horn
• Choose a song to play when people visit the page
  (compare to car stereo)
• Emphasis on hooking up
• Alternating between public and private nature
  of the activity

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_Sound familiar

• Oftentimes your Facebook image is not completely
  who you are but who you want to beIn my case
  instead of me reading a book I have a picture of
  me passed out on my kitchen table. The real me is
  somewhere closer to the scholarly side but I
  suppose subconsciously I would rather people see
  me as a partier (and I am dont get me wrong)
  because that is inherently cooler.
• I actually just started hating myself while I was
  answering this question. (AMc)

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_The kids are all right

• Potential employersnever thought of that. (KT)
  
• I dont care. Its just the internet. (AM)
• Once I start applying to med school my entire
  profile will be changed. I enjoy conservative
  economics medicine money and not straying from
  the societal norm! (RG)

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Special Thanks!

• Quotes marked with are from a survey conducted
  by Gina Maranto at the University of Miami.
• Thanks!