There’s a really interesting semi-transcription of a talk here by Danah Boyd for the American Association for the Advancement of Science back in February about how (and why) todays youth use Myspace, and what they are using it for. A PhD candidate, Danah is a ’social media researcher’ at Yahoo. I was blown away that you could potentially get a job doing this! Danah made some interesting points in her talk:

• Today’s youth are increasingly pushed into their homes to hang out after school and out of malls and other potentially dangerous public areas as our society becomes more populated and perhaps, aware, of predators. This gives an impetus to create a more vital ‘digital life’, and the creation of a compelling profile is central to that digital identity.
  
• The creation and constant modification of a Myspace profile is little like experimenting with clothes. In middle school, kids start to try to figure out how to act, what is cool and begin crafting their own persona (investigating how they want to be perceived by others). A Myspace profile is a digital version of this desire for social (group) acceptance. Personally, as a massive geek - I couldn’t help but see a strong parallel between the Myspace profile and the constant tweaking of a character sheet in a role playing game. While most of the kids using Myspace have never gamed, they have effectively been playing an RPG the whole time!
  
• Comments on a Myspace main page (which I have disparaged here in earlier posts) are a kind of validation which kids expect to receive from their friends. The fact that the comment is trivial, is in poor taste, or has nothing at all important to say about the person being commented on seems to be irrelevant. Comments, in Danah’s words are a cultural currency in Myspace. The more you get, the more valid your digital identity is. I think this is quite sad, but it’s how it works.
  
• She describes the rules of friending - a practice so alien (and repugnant) to me that it actually put me off of any participation on this site at all until Guthrum convinced me to look at it again. I added a couple people who I think are cool, like Guthrum, Brogan, and Mike. Not all of them agree with my decision to use this webspace to investigate and comment on the Myspace phenomenon - but if I was insecure enough to actually believe that I needed the validation of ‘an add’ or lots of comments I don’t think I’d hanging out with these guys at all. These are people of true character, totally unlike anyone else you’ll ever meet. I’m proud to call them my friends, but I retain the right to delete their comments if they don’t meet muster