I just read a speech by Danah Boyd to the Personal Democracy Forum entitled, "The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online." It challenges us to view online social networks and the like not as equalizers, but as a means to "bake in class/race/socio-economic divisions." She uses the My Space vs. Facebook to present her theories in a concrete way.
I think it is worth the 10 minutes it takes to read the speech, since so many of our students are users of these social network sites.
http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html
