Like many 20-somethings, I have spent countless hours wasting away in front of my computer on Facebook. I mean, who doesn’t want to know where their 6th grade summer camp crush went to law school or support the “Non-NYU Friend: ‘So Have You Seen The Olsen Twins Yet?’ You: ‘No, F*** You!'” group.
So I wasn’t too surprised at some recent reports about Facebook’s popularity. Steven Levy of Newsweek spoke with a researcher at Berkeley who found that:
“The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes and other ‘good’ kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college.” MySpace is still home for “kids whose parents didn’t go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school.” (MORE)
Well, duh! Facebook was founded as a networking site for college students and spread through the Ivy League and other elite colleges at its onset.
Then Hillel comes out this week with some very scientific findings (a online survey with a response rate of 2.2%. Is that even valid?):
“Facebook, instant messaging and text messaging may have surpassed MySpace as high schoolers’ preferred method of communication with friends and peers…” (MORE)
Despite the atrocious statistical accountability, I’ll believe it. Why? Various historians and communal professionals disagree on the actual number, but at least 80% of Jews between 18-22 attend college.
So the only next logical step is for Facebook to become a place to “post shout-outs to the cities and shtetls from which their ancestors hailed,” reports The Forward. Right?
A recent Princeton grad created the group “Straight Reppin’ My Shtetl!”:
“I was trying to belie the homogeneous shape today’s American Jewry has taken and bring awareness to a certain loss of diversity, while at the same time recognizing the current culture by making it all articulated through shout-outs,â€? said creator Gold, speaking by phone from his hometown of Chicago. Neighborhood shout-outs are a form of expression made popular by rap and R&B radio stations.” (MORE)
So maybe there’s something behind all of this, a way to use Facebook to harness the power of today’s “unaffiliated” Jewish youth, make them proud of their identity. Or maybe we’re all trying to justify the time we’ve spent online and not with actual, real-life people…
Anyway, back to my mini-feed.