Race An Issue in Social Media?

NOTE: I've been told I see the world with rose colored glasses, but this opinion is just mine, and I'd like to hear what you think. Let's chat on this topic, I'd like to hear what you have to say.

In a recent article I read on News.com.au, I was infuriated and frustrated by the limited scope that people seem to view the world with. It's human nature to be curious, but perhaps it's just as equally human nature to conjure up our own stories and reasons for why something happens. More specifically seeing things that quite frankly are open ended and could be determined in any number of other reasons.

In the article "Facebook 'sparked white flight from Myspace'" the author fervently attempts to make the connection between the massive migration of "predominantly" white persons to Facebook due to the...ahem...lack of refinement of the MySpace community. The word "digital ghetto" was used to describe the communities that are expanding in the MySpace world and the author went further to draw parallels to the move of societal classes from the urban areas to the suburbs. A connection that I again fail to see the relevance of. Perhaps it's just me, perhaps I'm missing the "big picture" moment here, but I ask, why does it have to fall to race?

While I do not question Ms Boyd's expertise in the matter, perhaps focusing on the issue as a matter of race is a bit of a jump. Let's look at options outside of race shall we.

• MySpace tends to draw a younger crowd, that's not big news. The maturity levels of younger individuals may be in question, but maturity levels have nothing to do with race. 12yr old who is white can be just as immature as a 12yr old of any other race or background. If individuals decide that MySpace is not for them, then leaving the space on those concerns is valid. NOT a race issue!
• MySpace has grown very popular with the creative culture, to include musicians, artists, comedians, entertainers of all backgrounds. Has this pigeon holed MySpace as an niche entertainment social network? Perhaps, but if you are not interested in following the latest bands, jokesters, or any other entertainer, perhaps you've outgrown MySpace and you move on. NOT a race issue.
• No surprise that Facebook has gained lots of popularity, especially within a demographic of women over 55 as sited by numerous sites (CNN Article from April 2009 as one example). Another study done by iStrategyLabs lists the huge surge of individuals to Facebook, saying that there was a "276% growth in 35-40 year old users." None of these studies involved race issues, and the iStrategyLabs does not even use race as a reason that was studied to determine the growth. So why would it instantly be assumed that race would be the reason for younger individuals? I'm just curious.

In defense of the above mentioned article, this is not the only article out there promoting these theories, there are many others if you do a simple Google search. I'm just floored by the conclusions drawn by the studies.

If there happens to be a large number of "white" persons leaving MySpace today it's called the "white flight" and it's because of race. What happens when those of other races decide to leave MySpace behind for their own reasons? Is it still a race issue? This whole topic of race just frustrates me.

The bottom line is this, are we still so fixated on differences in color and other superficial details that we result to these as answers when a group of commonly linked people tend to do something different? Maybe today's teens want a different experience than the cluttered and busy feel of MySpace. Maybe they want the seamless features that Facebook offers over MySpace. Or just maybe they are tired of their screen crashing because someone they follow put a custom background on their MySpace page with everything spinning, flashing, glowing, and singing to them.

Why can't it just be a matter of preference?