David Sasaki

David Sasaki: Amazed by how many of my twitter contacts have bought an iPhone already.

Ataraxia sure sounds nice ...

Syrian Blogsphere: Reform, Arab Nationalism and Travel

Two Syrian bloggers got into a heated debate this week over how the Syrian government should reform itself.

China: Bloggers take on drugs

Happy belated International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. If you haven’t heard of it, well, you probably don’t live in China.

Arabeyes: The Moment of Truth for a Jordanian Father

Amira Al Hussaini’s latest tour of translations from around the Middle East takes us to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, where blogger and journalist Amhad Shaltoni reflects on the difficulty of siding with one Palestinian faction over the other.

Tanzanian bloggers virtual election, Taifa Stars African Cup of Nations victory and a backflip in the parliament

It is football tournament time around much of the world. As the Western Hemisphere faces off for Copa America in Venezuela, Tanzanian bloggers celebrated Taifa Stars’ victory over Burkina Faso in the 2008 African Cup of Nations qualifying round. Also: trying out reversible lanes as a solution to traffic in Dar Es Salaam. J. Nambiza Tungaraza translates from Swahili.

Egypt: Freedom of Worship, Blogs to the Press, Anti-torture Campaigns Continue and More

We end the day in Egypt with two reflections on freedom of worship and a handy tip for Facebook users.

Roundups

On fidelity and doubt from Brunei, taking sexy back in the Philippines, new video portal with a Peruvian focus, and much more can be found in today’s Global Roundups.

Personally, I'd like to see the Knight News Challenge grant money go to projects with more of a social impact, but this one does have a 'cool' factor for oakland jazz fans.

Over the years I’ve read a lot of brilliant blogs posts and blog essays and academic papers by miss danah boyd (lower-case branded, just like our very own cad). But none had me nodding along so enthusiastically as her latest. Its title and its focus: ‘Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace.’

And a good portion of it taps into some of my own recent thoughts about taste and class. Here are some choice cuts and pastes from danah’s essay:

In sociology, Nalini Kotamraju has argued that constructing arguments around “class” is extremely difficult in the United States. Terms like “working class” and “middle class” and “upper class” get all muddled quickly. She argues that class divisions in the United States have more to do with lifestyle and social stratification than with income. In other words, all of my anti-capitalist college friends who work in cafes and read Engels are not working class just because they make $14K a year and have no benefits. Class divisions in the United States have more to do with social networks (the real ones, not FB/MS), social capital, cultural capital, and attitudes than income. Not surprisingly, other demographics typically discussed in class terms are also a part of this lifestyle division. Social networks are strongly connected to geography, race, and religion; these are also huge factors in lifestyle divisions and thus “class.”

I’m not doing justice to her arguments but it makes sense. My friends who are making $14K in cafes are not of the same class as the immigrant janitor in Oakland just because the share the same income bracket. Their lives are quite different. Unfortunately, with this framing, there aren’t really good labels to demarcate the class divisions that do exist. For this reason, I will attempt to delineate what we see on social network sites in stereotypical, descriptive terms meant to evoke an image.

Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with and have an opinion about MySpace. These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and “so middle school.” They prefer the “clean” look of Facebook, noting that it is more mature and that MySpace is “so lame.” What hegemonic teens call gaudy can also be labeled as “glitzy” or “bling” or “fly” (or what my generation would call “phat”) by subaltern teens. Terms like “bling” come out of hip-hop culture where showy, sparkly, brash visual displays are acceptable and valued. The look and feel of MySpace resonates far better with subaltern communities than it does with the upwardly mobile hegemonic teens. This is even clear in the blogosphere where people talk about how gauche MySpace is while commending Facebook on its aesthetics. I’m sure that a visual analyst would be able to explain how classed aesthetics are, but aesthetics are more than simply the “eye of the beholder” - they are culturally narrated and replicated. That “clean” or “modern” look of Facebook is akin to West Elm or Pottery Barn or any poshy Scandinavian design house (that I admit I’m drawn to) while the more flashy look of MySpace resembles the Las Vegas imagery that attracts millions every year. I suspect that lifestyles have aesthetic values and that these are being reproduced on MySpace and Facebook.

A couple weeks ago I was down in Salinas helping translate for a piece Cyrus is doing about taco trucks. Before meeting up, Melanie (a friend of Cyrus’) and I went to an internet café to get some work done. The teens sitting down at the computers were the same MySpace users that danah talks about in her essay. They had flashy earrings, baggy denim jeans, tattoos poking out of their shirt sleeves.

That’s not to say that there aren’t middle class and upper-middle class users still on MySpace. But it does say - like Danah rightly does - that we define class by metrics other than income, cars, and houses. Last year I was one of those people making much less (and working much more) than your average janitor. But I wouldn’t kid myself: I wasn’t for a day ‘lower-class.’

The question that I’ve had such a difficult time answering is why in the fuck do I love Miles Davis and John Coltrane so much? Why are songs like Flamenco Sketches and Equinox the closest I’ll ever get to ‘a spiritual experience’? And why are others able to walk right by like they’re just songs on the elevator?

Just like Facebook is an online litmus test of class comfort, anyone who loves Miles and Coltrane is, somehow, automatically middle class. Even in hip-hop: you like Tribe Called Quest and Atmosphere (as I do) and you’re middle class … you like Lil’ Wayne and The Game, you’re lower-class.

If you prefer Martinis over Rum and Cokes, dark beers over light beers, and the New York Times over the Fresno Bee, then you’re middle class. It doesn’t matter what your income is.

So I ask for your help. Why do I like Miles Davis more than Justin Timberlake? Why do I like Atmosphere more than Doctor Dre? Why do I like the taste of gin and tonic more than rum and coke? And why can I (just barely) put up with Facebook when MySpace made me nauseous? (Actually, I’m not really on Facebook because I don’t have the time, but it doesn’t repel me like MySpace did.)

Last weekend HP reminded me how I was working at one of Monterrey’s most bourgeois cafe’s when we met up. It fits perfect with his limousine liberal portrait of me. But it has nothing to do with class. I’d spend 50 cents on a single espresso there while HP would rather spend $5 on a coke, hot dog, and chips at 7-11. At Gustavo’s wedding HP was (proudly) drinking bud light out of the can while I drank Pacificos out of the bottle.

HP will always make more money than me. But when people look at us, they’ll always view me as the middle class one just because of taste.

Could it be true? Could I really enjoy the taste of Pacifico over Bud Light just because of the societal notion than it’s somehow more ‘classy.’ What about my love for Miles? Or my taste in architecture and design? Are those preferences not my own?

Does class mobility in the US have as much to do with being able to change taste as as being able to change income?

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Morocco: Telecoms, The Blogging Grand Prix, and Reactions to Salman Rushdie’s Knighthood

Both blogging and broadband are on the rise in Morocco, reports Hamza Daoui.

China: Boycotting Beijing Olympics? They have ill intentions.

Protests against China’s investments in Sudan and calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics have provoked angry responses from Chinse bloggers.

Korea: 6.25

57 years ago, a conflict began on the Korean Peninsula which later came to be called the Korean War. How do South Korean bloggers remember the anniversary now? How does it compare with the stridently anti-communist times of their childhoods? Hyejin Kim’s translations offer insight.

Taiwan: Fifth Day Festival

Also called the ‘Dragon Boat Festival’ or ‘Duanwu Festival’, the Fifth Day Festival has more than just various names - there are also differing interpretations of what is being commemorated. I-fan Lin and the Global Voices Chinese team take us on a cyber-tour of the holiday and its tasty traditions.

Russia: “Completely Different Other Russias”

You may recall the name of Maria Gaidar, leader of Russia’s Yes! youth movement and daughter of former acting premier, Yegor Gaidar. Six months ago she was featured on Global Voices after spending an hour and a half suspending on ropes from a Moscow bridge with a banner that read “Give the election back to the people, bastards!” Miss Gaidar is back in the blogger spotlight again. Veronica Khokhlova tells us why.

Roundups

Volga cars in Russia, how Central Asia might be impacted by China’s soft power., the next war in the Middle East, and much more can be found in today’s Global Roundups.

David Sasaki: Wondering if the tone of a mailing list is set the first day it's created ...