Gentrification Economy

While the aftermath of the Second World War completely destroyed the economies of several countries, especially those within Europe, the United States and Russia rebounded quickly to become the two superpowers of the world. The secret to successfully rebuilding their economies was found in the monumental technological advances made by each country. The innovative success of each nation was so great that it resulted in constant competition for each country to present the next big thing: from radio to television, the atomic bomb to the hydrogen bomb, to man walking on the moon. With such improvement in technology, it didn't take long for countries with a completely broken economy, such as Germany and Japan, to reconstruct themselves to become

Technological advancement clearly has its positive affects on individuals and cultures as a whole, yet it may also be harmful to cultures that once were. Defined by Sharon Zukin, gentrification is “the conversion of socially marginal and working-class areas of the central city to middle-class residential use… reflects a movement of private-market investment capital into downtown districts of major urban centers.” Within Silicon Valley, gentrification has taken place in the major cities such as San Francisco. Home to several high-rises, skyscrapers and high tech companies, San Francisco has changed over time to become an extremely innovative city. However, in its process of doing so, previous residents of S.F. have since relocated elsewhere to make room for the innovative culture, including highly skilled and educated workers moving in. Alexandra Goldman finds that this movement within the city (and others experiencing gentrification) creates an area of a singular class status and educational or skill level. Hence, the city’s culture changes to one for a specific group of people. It is with such situation that brings a negative response to gentrification as it displaces the equality within urban areas. High-income individuals force the low-income individuals out of the area and replace the current

While it has been explored so far how technological advancement has affected varying social classes, especially when discussing gentrification, once exploring the technology of social media, it becomes clear that there are additional social forces analyzed. Danah Boyd performed a study in 2011 regarding the idea of “white flight” but occurring online, specifically between MySpace and Facebook. As Facebook was breaking the surface of social media in 2007, MySpace was still the more popular social network for teenagers to use and stay connected to one another . However, it didn't take long before more and more teens stopped using MySpace and preferred Facebook as their go-to social media site. It was this change of one’s social media preference that sparked the research question for Boyd’s study: why the sudden change from MySpace to Facebook and which individuals changed their