For me, the question is: “are teenagers tiring of the highly-visible social network sites?” and the answer is both yes and no. The level of emotional enthusiasm i hear has dramatically faded over the last six months. It’s taken for granted that it’s the way to reach people, but folks have seen the pros and cons and are no longer slurping it up without thinking. The perceived presence of people who hold power over teens (parents, teachers, etc.) and those who want to prey on them (marketers, pedophiles, etc.) has done unbelievable damage in general teen perception. I’m astounded by how many teens i’m running into who are “scared” to go on MySpace because they’ve been told horror stories by everyone. It doesn’t matter that the stories they repeat back to me are inaccurate - it’s clear that mainstream news coverage had a huge role in shaping social network sites in 2006. I want to scream every time a teen tells me the story of the two alexes or about how Dateline “proved” that predators are going to stalk them. (Instead, i listen patiently and politely.)

More significantly, MySpace has turned into a massive zit full of marketing puss. Most teens don’t mind advertising but when things look more like spam than advertising, you’re in deep shit. Every PR organization and marketing arm is leeching onto MySpace like a blood thirsty vampire. Problem is that vampires kill their prey. Teens who wanna hang with friends are mostly protecting themselves by privatizing their profile (more cuz of the marketing predators than the sexual ones) but this quickly loses the luster, particularly when it’s fundamentally hard to do what you want to communicate with your friends. (Simple things like friend management and better messaging tools would go a long way.) I’m very worried about how, unregulated, spamming and over-advertising will kill even the coolest social
hangouts. I keep wondering what the regulation solution will have to be. (Is it law or code cuz it ain’t gonna be market or social norms?).

Un article de Danah Boyd sur la dernière enquête du PEW à propos de l’usage des sites sociaux par les adolescents. Ses commentaires sont très intéressants (méthode de l’enquête, participants aux sites, sexe etc) :

PEW has just released the overview of their latest study on teens’ usage of social network sites. Most of the data is not surprising, but it sure is interesting. Here are some of the key findings:

• 55% of online teens (ages 12-17) have created a personal
  profile online, and 55% have used social networking sites like MySpace
  or Facebook.
• 66% of teens who have created a profile say that their
  profile is not visible to all internet users. They limit access to
  their profiles.
• 48% of teens visit social networking websites daily or more often; 26% visit once a day, 22% visit several times a day.
• Older girls ages 15-17 are more likely to have used social
  networking sites and created online profiles; 70% of older girls have
  used an online social network compared with 54% of older boys, and 70%
  of older girls have created an online profile, while only 57% of older
  boys have done so.

I wanted to comment on their findings because, frankly, i’m terrified of how this is going to be taken up by the press.

Il sera peut-être toujours possible de retrouver quelques traces -
vieilles insultes entre blogueurs ou vieilles photos de vous en train
de cuver votre vin dans une fête. Si cela était le cas, je pense tout
de même profondément qu’elles n’auront pas la même valeur que celles
qu’on pourrait leur accorder aujourd’hui, parce que toute une
génération aura déjà vu ce type de propos ou d’images sur l’internet.
Une photo d’un type qui montre ses fesses choque encore parfois. Mais
retrouver dans 20 ans ce type de photos alors que toute une génération
le fait sur Skyblog ou MySpace aujourd’hui, n’aura pas la même portée,
non seulement pour ceux qui seront devenus nos pairs, mais tout autant
pour des relations plus formelles que ce soit des employeurs ou des
électeurs devant lesquels on se présenterait… J’espère que ce sera
plutôt un facteur de sympathie et d’empathie qu’autre chose, comme un
souvenir en commun. Ces reliquats numériques ne serviront qu’à faire
bruire la machine médiatique d’une secousse supplémentaire, d’un
hoquet, comme elle en connaît tant. Et qui finissent par s’oublier, le
plus souvent, quelques heures plus tard. La conversation continue.

Lire un article de The Chronicle of Higher Education sur cette question.

via thot