Since blogging began in 1997, it has been an avid outlet for most of its users. With the many changes, phases and tribulations that occur in teenage years, it is no wonder that adolescents, particularly females, are the chief users of personal blogging as an outlet to voice their thoughts and feelings (Henning, 2004).
Back in the 1980’s it would have been the ultimate intrusion to read someone’s diary but now, through blogging, teenagers are actually encouraging it (Nussbaum, 2004). David Weinberger, author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web, says the exploration of self-identity is a major allure for bloggers of all ages. "On the Web, we all have a persona and we have exquisite control over that persona. People who write weblogs are inevitably choosing how they present themselves," he says (Armstrong, 2003).
Last October, Perseus Development Corporation’s latest figures expected there to be 10 million blogs by the end of 2004. What surprised many people is that the vast majority of bloggers are teenagers and young adults. 13 to 29 year olds make up 90 per cent of the blogging community and according Perseus 51 per cent are aged between 13 and 19 years. Although many teenage blogs are ‘short-lived experiments’ for a significant number they become a way of life, a daily record of private thoughts - an invisible high school that floats above the daily life of teenagers (Nussbaum, 2004).
The relationship between teenagers and personal blogging is a perfect fit.
A significant number of bloggers treat their journals as actual diaries and in daily life most bloggers don’t talk about what they say online. As an outlet, personal blogging allows teenagers to give something up by sloughing off a self-protective layer and get something back too - a new kind of intimacy, a sense that they are known and listened to (Nussbaum, 2004).
Natalia, a high school junior uses her weblog to write journal entries, display personal photo albums and discuss favourite movies and musicians.
In an interview with New York Times reporter Emily Nussbaum (2004) one 15 year old boy described his Blurty journal as “better than therapy,� a way to get out his true feelings - all the emotions he thought might get him in trouble if he expressed them in school or at home (Nussbaum, 2004).
"Kids don't really have controlled outlets like this as parents have a say in how you decorate your room, how you dress, your posture, etc, but anyone with basic Web literacy can set up a blog in about five minutes. They can give instant reception to even the least tech-savvy kids," says Chris Baker, an editor at Wired magazine who has covered what is known as the blogosphere (Armstrong, 2003).
Blogging has become a replication of real life: each group of blogs is its own ecosystem, with occasional links to other worlds. Kids who identify with “ghetto� culture use hip-hop slang, geeks drool over new technology and high school cheerleaders’ display pictures from popular TV shows such as “The O.C� (Nussbaum, 2004). Overall personal blogging has become a safe, constructive outlet for bloggers, the majority of which are teenagers, to turn their feelings, thoughts and actions into words.
Hailey Puller 12:14, 7 Sep 2004 (EST)
Hailey Puller 11:53, 24 Oct 2004 (EST)
