This article by Danah Boyd, echoes what we read last week in class about social network sites, for example Facebook and Myspace, and why these sites are so popular. Boyd draws her attention to why younger teenagers are obsessing over Myspace with trying to understand the development and social forces that dictate why teenagers turn to social network sites. In the article, an 18 year old girl stated to her mom, “If you’re not on Myspace, you don’t exist.” Wow. That is a powerful statement, that can only be coined as true if individuals that believe it are dependent, weak, and self-conscious. Myspace became extremely popular around 2005, and spread like wild fire. Everyone that was cool, had to get a Myspace or Facebook. So they think.

The main individuals that flock to this site are urban youth, majority still in highschool, and do live with a parent, or guardian. Gender does play a role, where younger boys particpate more than younger girls, but older girls participate more than older boys. That is interesting because I do believe that since in college, girls add hundreds of pictures in just one weekend, so their “friends” know what they are doing and how they look on the weekends. These social network sites are more for competition of friends, of adding pictures of what individuals do on weekends, what they post on statuses, so their friends can praise them. It is a huge self-esteem booster, however it can make people upset or mad if some individuals were not invited to certain events and it is posted over everyone’s wall. When something is added on the internet, it is for everyone to see. So individuals can not get mad about putting too much information on there for the world to see.Individuals want the public to agree or disagree with them, since everyone is doing it in society people want some sort of structure and that is where social networks come into play.