Essay 4739

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

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The online divide

While Web sites like Facebook and MySpace are designed to help meet new people, college students are using them to communicate along racial and ethnic lines

BY DAVE NEWBART, Staff Reporter

In theory, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace should help college students meet new people outside their existing social groups and help students who live at home expand their horizons.

But a new study suggests that students use the sites largely to communicate with people they already know, and tend to use such sites along racial and ethnic lines. And the study shows that students who live at home actually use the sites less than those who live on campus.

The study, by Northwestern University assistant communications Professor Eszter Hargittai, was published recently in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Hargittai surveyed 1,000 students at the University of Illinois at Chicago about their use of social networking sites.

She found the use was widespread: 85 percent of men and 89 percent of women use the sites. That was slightly lower than another study that found that 94 percent of students at Michigan State University use the sites, but still significant.

But which sites were used varied by race.

Whites, blacks and Asian Americans favored Facebook over MySpace. But Hispanics favored MySpace. Meanwhile, Asian Americans were the only group that used such sites like Xanga and Friendster in significant numbers.

Hargittai couldn’t say for sure why the disparities existed but speculated that many Latinos, who tend to go to college in lesser numbers than whites or Asian Americans, could use MySpace to stay in touch with friends who aren’t in college. Formerly, Facebook was only open to college students. (While blacks also attend college at lower rates, she said the sample was too small to make significant conclusions.)

“These services are used for keeping in touch with people you already know,” she said. “People tend to hang out with others like them” and stay in touch with others in the same community, she said.

She said sites like Xanga and Friendster are popular in many Asian countries and account for their popularity among Asian-American students here.

For students who live at home -- as is the case with most UIC students -- the networks aren’t necessarily expanding their social base. While 87 percent of students who live on campus use Facebook, for example, just 71 percent of students who live with their parents do. She said part of the reason is time: Commuters might be spending more time getting to or from school or tending to family obligations than socializing online.

“One important aspect of going to college is to meet people, create social capital,” she said. “These students are missing out.”