NPR: Facebook, MySpace divide along social lines

Earlier this week, NPR ran a story about the social roles of Facebook and MySpace in the lives of today's teenagers. They interviewed several high school aged kids to get a sense of what they thought of the competing social networks, then had some experts weigh in to validate a number of the claims.

One surprising revelation of the interviews was that the two social networks appear to be evolving into distinct "neighborhoods," with lower income people moving towards MySpace and higher income people migrating to Facebook (although this appears to be unintentional). Facebook users are drawn to its clean layout and organization, while MySpace attracts more artists and musicians who like the high amount of customization available to their profile.

Listen to the segment.

While I think there's probably some truth to the claims, the analysis of the segment is based on a sample size of less than a dozen people. It's interesting, but far from conclusive. I think I'll refrain on passing judgement until something more substansive comes along.