clipped from news.bbc.co.uk

Fans of MySpace and Facebook are divided by much more than which music they like, suggests a study.

The research suggests those using Facebook come from wealthier homes and are more likely to attend college.

The conclusions are based on interviews with many teenage users of the social networking sites by PhD student Danah Boyd from the School of Information Sciences at UC Berkeley.

This division is just another way in which technology is mirroring societal values Danah Boyd

Characterising Facebook users she said: "They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities."

By contrast, the average MySpace teenager tendeds to come from families where parents did not go to college, she said.

"MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracised at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers," she said.

Teenage users of both sites have very strong opinions about the social network they do not use, she noted.