Blogging Teens
Every day, blogs are created by
people of all ages and
from all walks of life, but when
it comes to blogging,
teen writers are truly on the
cutting edge of the
movement. Because today's
teenagers are the first
generation of people to have grown
up using the
internet at every stage of their
development, many
adolescents have a seemingly
innate sense of how to use
web technology to express their
innermost thoughts and
ideas. Older writers often
experience a kind of learning
curve when they begin to blog, but
many young people
find that using a word processor
and blogging software
feels more natural and direct a
mode of communication
than writing in a diary ever
could.
One of the reasons why blogs
have undergone a kind of
explosion in the teen community
and are growing by
leaps and bounds is the fact that
they provide a unique
mixture of visibility and
anonymity. A teenager can
invite friends and peers to read
his or her blog with a
simple email, thereby winning
attention or possibly
even praise. Of course, with
visibility usually comes the
possibility of embarrassment, but
the fact that it is
possible to blog anonymously with
an invented handle
or nickname negates a lot of the
potential for
humiliation. Many a blogging teen
lives in fear that a
parent or guardian will discover
his or her blog, but by
publishing under an alias a
teenager can spill his or her
secrets without fear of being
traced.
Outside the world of blogging,
teen writers often have
very limited opportunities to be
published. Magazines
and journals are often reticent to
publish young writers
who may not have as much
credibility as older writers
with a lot of experience and
extensive credits to their
names. This can discourage
adolescents from writing or
from seeking chances to publish
their work. By
blogging, young people can begin
to gain a following of
readers without first having to
win the attention and
support of an editor or publisher
who may not be very
interested in teenaged
authors.
Between the fact that blogs
provide young people with a
chance to exercise their
impressive technical aptitude,
to gain visibility without
compromising privacy, and to
build a readership for their
writing without having to
jump through the traditional hoops
of the publishing
industry, it is little wonder that
are so many teenagers
with blogs. For some teenagers,
blogging is even a very
social endeavor that allows them
to meet people with
similar interests from all over
the world. Many a
blogging teen has discovered that
having a weblog on
the internet is a great way to
explore self-expression
and, often, to win positive
feedback from new friends.
