"MySpace Is For Povo-es" says US academic

Trouble for MySpace. An academic has pointed out that the clever, rich kids are the ones migrating to Facebook, leaving MySpace to the future ranks of the US's blue collar workforce and street sweepers. Whilst Facebook is attracting smart, preppy, slick kids with a few $$$, MySpace is the home of the "geeks, freaks and queers." If Facebook is turning into the must-have site for anyone in a Ralph Lauren shirt and down (Prince William included), MySpace is sat in the rival corner in some form of curious, interesting social ghetto.

Danah Boyd, a PHD student in the US, has written a poignant blog essay based on 6 months research, which has been picked up here and here. Don't know if it's accurate or not but my gut says it is. And if it  is, this could be the make-or-break moment for MySpace and its marketing team.  If they've not got enough to worry about trying to make money out of the product without losing its 'authenticity,' now throw in this little brand issue.

When I was a kid, a guaranteed social death awaited anyone who walked through the school gates wearing a pair of low quality trainers. A pair of Buktas, Gola, Woolworth's own brand or football boots with rubber studs rather than the real screw-ins - any of those and you were walking straight in to the jaws of humiliation. Crossing cultural divides here...in Australia they'd call you a 'bogan or povo,' in the UK it would be 'gyppo,' (before your insulter was excluded).

But there's $$$ and a big opportunity for a brand in the povo-es corner of the school playground. When I got older I realised that actually the kids in the Woolworth's trainers were also listening to cool bands. They started listening to The Smiths, and then the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays and then Nirvana. And then I copied them. Actually it was quite cool to wear shit clothes - and I wanted to be one of them.

As the migration to Facebook continues - this could be fightback time for MySpace. But can the marketers create a new Nike Air or a run-of-the-mill Reebok Classic?

Comments

[Kathleen]

I read the above, and thought "duh, common sense." Not to take anything away from Boyd, because she makes some valid points w/ some decent research. Its just interesting how intuitive it is for me and my fellow-college facebookers. Facebook is rooted in the college experience, so of course its going to take on some "high-brow" tendencies. Or at least, as high-brow as social networking media can be. Its a status thing, esp. since it used to be closed to those without an .edu address.

Finally, just look at the interface. White/clean=facebook
Black(dark)/cluttered= MySpace.

[Alison Byrne Fields]

The thing is, using "class distinction" to differentiate between the mainstreamers and the "geeks, freaks and queers," is what gets in the way of me embracing boyd's argument because it suggests that socioeconomics is the issue. And, well, there are a whole hell of a lot of "geeks, freaks and queers," whose mommies and daddies have plenty of cash in the bank. In fact, most of the geeks, freaks and queers that I was friends with growing up had the confidence to exist outside of the mainstream, in part, because they didn't think they had to play along to make it. They, as you point out, bought the Woolworth trainers because they knew -- before you did -- that they were cool: the ironic poverty of the rich kids.

[Alison Byrne Fields]

The thing is, using "class distinction" to differentiate between the mainstreamers and the "geeks, freaks and queers," is what gets in the way of me embracing boyd's argument because it suggests that socioeconomics is the issue. And, well, there are a whole hell of a lot of "geeks, freaks and queers," whose mommies and daddies have plenty of cash in the bank. In fact, most of the geeks, freaks and queers that I was friends with growing up had the confidence to exist outside of the mainstream, in part, because they didn't think they had to play along to make it. They, as you point out, bought the Woolworth trainers because they knew -- before you did -- that they were cool: the ironic poverty of the rich kids.