Danah Boyd has written a thought-provoking essay on what seems to be an emerging class division between the My Space and Facebook communities. The essay is based on Danah’s personal observations in the field over the last 6-9 months.

She states:

Hegemonic American teens (i.e. middle/upper class, college bound teens from upwards mobile or well off families) are all on or switching to Facebook. Marginalized teens, teens from poorer or less educated backgrounds, subculturally-identified teens, and other non-hegemonic teens continue to be drawn to MySpace. A class division has emerged and it is playing out in the aesthetics, the kinds of advertising, and the policy decisions being made.

You can find the full essay here:
Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace

This essay is especially interesting to me, as we have been engaged in an internal debate at Forum One about the use of Facebook vs. Linked In as a professional networking tool. I use both, but I devote much more time and energy to LinkedIn than I do to Facebook. The reason is similar to the one Boyd states “Hegemonic Teens” have for using Facebook over MySpace: the interface (in particular the nomenclature) feels loose and too informal for me (example: search results stating “I’ve got nothing for you”).