This paper explores how teenagers understand MySpace vs. Facebook through language associated with class and race logics in the United States. The argument begins with a quote from a teenage girl who notes “It’s not really racist, but I guess you could say that. I’m not really into racism, but I think that MySpace now is more like ghetto or whatever.”

The original version of this paper was a controversial 2007 blog essay entitled “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace.” The backlash to this version was intense, prompting me to write a response.

In 2009, I gave a talk at the International Communication Association about this work, entitled “MySpace Vs. Facebook: A Digital Enactment of Class-Based Social Categories Amongst American Teenagers.” Finally, I published a complete paper in the edited volume Race After the Internet (edited by Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White).

This paper was also republished in Portuguese as: boyd, danah. 2017. “Êxodo branco em redes sociais? Como raça e classe moldaram o envolvimento de adolescentes estadunidenses com MySpace e Facebook.” Revista Parágrafo 5(1): 19-35.