"Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites"

From by a paper Eszter Hargittai

Hispanic students are significantly more likely to use MySpace than are Whites in the sample, while Asian and Asian American students are significantly less likely to use MySpace. Additionally, the latter group is much more likely to use Xanga and Friendster than are Whites, a practice that may be due to these services' popularity in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia (boyd & Ellison, this issue), where—given the immigrant nature of the sample—many students may have extended family and friends from earlier parts of their lives.

Regarding parental education, students whose parents have lower levels of schooling are more likely to be MySpace users, whereas students whose parents have higher levels of education are more likely to be Facebook users. These associations are not evident when aggregating all social network site usage, probably because the various relationships cancel each other out.

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	Any SNS	Facebook	MySpace	Xanga	Friendster
Gender
Male	85*	78	49***	6	3
Female	89*	80	59***	6	4
Race and Ethnicity
White, non-Hispanic	89	83**	57	3***	0***
Hispanic	86	60***	73***	3*	1*
African American, NH	84	80	58	0	0*
Asian American, NH	88	84**	39***	13***	10***
Native American, NH	83	75	58	8	0
Parent's Highest Level of Education
Less than high school	88	64***	73***	1*	0*
High school	83*	73*	57	6	2
Some college	85	74*	57	6	2
College	90*	86***	55	6	6
Graduate degree	88	83	41***	9*	4

Table 4.Percentage of different groups of people who use any SNS and specific social network sites.
Use is defined as "use sometimes" or "use often."
*p<.1, **p<.01, ***p<.001