“Login to Twitter. Login to Facebook. What you see is a world that you’ve constructed. These are YOUR “Friends”, the people you’ve chosen to follow. Or at least the people you’ve been guilted into following. These people shape your experiences of social media. They speak about things that matter to you, either because you know them personally or because you like the way they think. They speak like you. Or, more accurately, you speak like them. Cause even though you might think you’re speaking to your “audience,” your sense of norms is based on the content you read. So, really, you’re speaking to the people you follow, even though they might not be the ones who are actually listening. You aren’t speaking to your “audience” but to the people who you like to watch. Your sense of what people do with social media is highly dependent on what you consume, how you consume it, and why you’re there in the first place. So is mine. The world you live in online looks different than the world I live in. And it looks different than the world that an average teen lives in. And it looks different than the world Lady Gaga lives in. And it looks different than the world that people from different cultural backgrounds experience. Our worlds are different, even if the interface gives us the impression that they’re the same.”
- Danah Boyd
