Facebook and MySpace on different sides of class divide

The BBC is reporting on research showing that Facebook users come from wealthier homes and are more likely to go to college, while MySpace users are more likely to get a job right out of high school.

Frankly, I'm not surprised, given that Facebook spent a couple of years in existence as a site for college students only, and wealthier kids are more likely to go to college.

My friends who go to Ivy League institutions still lament the day when facebook opened to colleges outside the Ivy League

what?
do you mean US colleges

as colleges in the UK (or more to the point universitys) are full of people from all backgrounds. regardless of money. its only a small few who can't afford to go.

Let them have their myspace. They'll only fuck it up in a few years.

I think the comment of 'from wealthier homes are more likely to go to college' is fair.
Numerous reports show that people from a working class back ground are less likely to attend higher education, the proportion of working class children going to uni is still very low.

Yes and then there are people like me for whom the system makes entering Higher Education unbelievably difficult and completing it nigh-on impossible. In the end, I was forced to leave this month (the end of my second year) because I could not afford to pay my tuition fees, a problem shared by an increasing number of people. Add top-up fees to that and it becomes even less likely that people from certain areas in society will be able to afford a University education.

I should have gone to the Uni my sister is about to attend (Leeds Met). Their stance is that they believe themselves to be able to provide a good education without charging extortionate fees. As such, they have reduced the usual £3000 a year to £1000, I believe. In addition, the students don't actually have to pay the fees now; like Student Loan repayments, they can pay in instalments when they are earning over a certain wage after the completion of their degree.

Anyway, back on topic, yeah; it stands to reason that more University students would use Facebook on account of it being devised for them originally. To me, it also stands to reason that people from more affluent families would attend University than those from less affluent families.

i went to university and use Facebook and have never had a Myspace account, shiiiiit they've got me right

I want to point out that my previous comment was ironic and that having rich parents is more a requirement than a working brain to attend a University in the UK.

i dont understand why they even felt the need to SAY it. Myspace started as a site to spread music, a lot of it underground. facebook started as a way for college students to communicate. isnt it obvious that *many* of the ivy league college crowd will be from wealthier households than the underground garage band crowd?

Um... yeah, this is like research that says that people who go to libraries read more books.

Facebook started as a college thing. And it is not just that wealthier kids go to college, it is that wealthier kids are more used to the idea of computers a networking (social) tools.

Myspace is the ghetto.

Seriously, why is anyone bothering to respond to this paper? The paper itself states it isn't even actual peer reviewed research:

Too critical to go unnoticed? Do me a favour: it is like saying teabag in mug plus boiling water equals tea from my point of view. As the original poser suggested, a large chunk of it is because Facebook's original origins was that it was targeted at that specific market. The biggest part of this story is that the BBC ran with it in order to generate page views

For anyone to call it "research" is an affront to proper science. (Note - that's not aimed at the OP, just the organisations who are reporting it).

Yes.

On that note.
People who go to Suicide Girls are more likely to enjoy looking at naked women.

Yeah, those kids (the Ivy League kids, not necessarily your friends) have been whining about that for years now.

WTF? There are naked women here? I thought it was only Forums and Groups!

So if Myspace is the Ghetto, and Facebook is the richy rich. What is SG? The person that will punch your gramma in the face?

For realz...

Hey man, I'm the real deal!

hmm... i signed up for facebook and got over it in a week... i'm a college kid and sadly addicted to myspace