Poet Ponders the Digital

Visalia Direct: Virtual Valley November 2009 Issue September 27, 2009 Beyond the Valley: Are We There Yet? The Virtual Valley was supposed to bring us all together. Our physical location was supposed to matter less than with whom we connected online. Yet, there seem to be limits to our online social networks. Researchers have studied online communities for almost three decades, often assuming virtual communities were going to liberate us from traditional barriers. This year we saw evidence that barriers persist online. Eszter Hargittai, a sociologist at Northwestern University, calls this the “Whose Space?” phenomenon. Users, however, being less politically correct than academics, have rechristened MySpace as “MyGhetto,”  “GangstaSpace” and “MyHood.” According to Hargittai’s data, Hispanics are twice as likely to use MySpace as Facebook. There is also a high correlation between educational level and which social sites someone uses. Of those using a social site, 86 perce...

Ivanhoe, California I am from Ivanhoe, California , and believe growing up in a small, Hispanic, farming community has influenced most of my decisions. Before viewing my slide show, I think you should know about the place I call home. Population (year 2000): 4,474 Median resident age: 24.9 years California median age: 33.3 years Ivanhoe median household income in 2005: $29,700 California median household income in 2005: $53,629 Ivanhoe median house/condo in 2000: $76,900 Ivanhoe median house/condo in 2005: $159,100 California median house/condo in 2005: $477,700 The ethnic composition of Ivanhoe also shaped my views on social issues: Races in Ivanhoe Hispanic 76.2% Other race 40.4% White Non-Hispanic 21.8% Two or more races 9.5% American Indian 2.0% As you can tell, it is not what people imagine of California. My wife and I uploaded some of our photos of the area around Ivanhoe, which I have marked as a slideshow on Flickr . Somewhere in storage I have photos of Ivanho...