Status anxiety
Facebook versus MySpace is just how the Web 2.0 world expresses U and non-U
29 September 2007
Toby Young on the social angst of online networking
In spite of being an early adopter of Facebook, I have never been paid this compliment. At one stage, I seriously considered creating a fake ‘Toby Young’ profile myself, but then I realised that the ‘Toby Young’ in question wouldn’t be someone masquerading as me — it would be me. The only solution would be to pay someone else to do the pretending — which would be a bit like paying someone to stalk you. I know of several photographers who have been hired by D-list celebrities to follow them around all evening, masquerading as paparazzi, but, as yet, no Web 2.0 entrepreneur has started a fake internet identity business.
I may have more luck on MySpace. According to Danah Boyd, MySpace users are people who were ‘socially ostracised at school’. When I was at school, I set up an organisation called ‘A Sensible Approach to Nuclear Questions’ that was designed to antagonise left-wing CND types. The trouble is, this was in 1979 and everyone at the school, apart from me, fell into that category. At heart, I’m a ‘subaltern’ rather than a ‘hegemonic’ and I should stop pretending otherwise.
Toby Young is associate editor of The Spectator.
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DD
September 28th, 2007 11:57pm Report this commentSpot on.
Toby Young
October 9th, 2007 8:30pm Report this commentYou nearly had me there!
tony kirkwood
December 21st, 2007 12:25pm Report this commentToby Hi, do you have Alex de Silva's facebook address love and happy crimbo tony
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