Teenagers and Blogs

Blogs, communities and relationships:

how adolescents use blogs

Stephanie BoothLausanne, CHhttp://climbtothestars.org

Cartigny Workshop 22-24 June 06« Sexual Health ofAdolescents in the Internet Age »

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Schools and blogs

• Students have blogs

• Some go overboard

• Need for information– Students– Teachers– Parents

What is a blog?

- a kind of website- easy and free- chronological- text, photos, video…- conversational

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What I have witnessed

• Past 18 months: regularly called in by schools with « blog problems »

• As a teacher, been confronted to some problems of my own

• As a blogger of 6 years, insider understanding of the medium

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What goes wrong?

• Naked bottoms or other body parts• Insults (teachers, school, peers)• Stolen photographs• Pornography• Harrassment • Illicit behaviour documented (theft, drugs…)• Suggestive poses and skimpy clothing• Unhealthy peer support groups (suicide, anorexia)• Racism and hatred• ...

Often, first boundaries met are state or school authorities.

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Teenage blogs

• My friends, my cat, my house and me

• Sports and cute pictures

• Most blogs don’t get noticed

« TRIBAL »-Shared with peers-Addition to offline-Document group life

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Social Internet Divide

Teachers, parents:• « Library » Internet

– A place to search for information

– Information one consumes– Google

Teenagers, geeks:• Social Internet

– A place to build and nurture relationships

– A place to express oneself– A whole world to participate

in– A whole world of people to

meet, the living web– Networking– MSN, MySpace, Skyblog,

Second Life…

It is urgent that « carers » discover the Internet young people live in.

Media mix. Multifunctional devices.

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What gets teenagers in trouble

• Blogs are not perceived as being public, although on the Internet (world of peers without adults)

• Anonymity overestimated (they can’t find me; « privacy by obscurity »)

• No educated adults in this new media to provide education (teenagers left to themselves)

• Parents often don’t know their children have blogs! (cf. mini-survey)

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Will I get in trouble?

• Provocation

• Cat-and-mouseTeenagers know very well, when asked, that anybody can access something which is on the Internet.

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Try and find me!

Content and context allow identification of blogger.

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Found on skyblog.com

• Popular platform with French-speaking teenagers

• Most blogs are not problematic (« clean »)

• Examples of questionable material

Bad boys

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Bad boys II

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Do ya think I’m sexy?

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Do ya think I’m sexy? (2)

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Like my bathing suit?

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Do you love me?

Leave a comment if you love me

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I love you

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You suck!

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Value judgements

• « Black or white » appreciations

• Lots of photographs and requests for comments

• Lots of judgements on appearance

• Is it healthy?

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Party!

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Do the parents know?

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Do the parents know? (2)

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My blog is private!

• Many teenage bloggers would be mortified if their parents found their blog

• Strong defensive reactions when school interferes

• Think their blog is hidden (« privacy by obscurity »)

• No awareness of possible future discomfort present content may bring (permanence of digital media)

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Not pornBedroom walls!

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Dark…

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Suicide

The Internet brings together those with similar interests…

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Suicide (2)

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Glamour suicide

http://deprimuzderetour.skyblog.com/l

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Glamour suicide (2)A

ttractive op

tion

!

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Suicide, anorexia, etc.

• A lot of talk makes such preoccupations seems commonplace (« everybody feels suicidal »)

• Description of experience and positive after-effects (« after I cut myself, everybody was so nice to me »)

• « Feeling understood » is not necessarily effective support

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Where is this bringing us?

• A lot of what used to happen in private is now happening in public: visibility (harrassment, name-calling, insults…)

• Technological control is not possible anymore (moblogging)

• All digital media (photos, video) run the risk of ending up on the Internet

• Media education needed

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Online relationships

• Online relationships are documented (useful in research)

• Decreases social anxiety (no physical presence): what is the impact on developing social skills?

• Online is just another way of interacting or meeting people (no online/offline fracture)

• Teenagers meet new people online and bring the relationship offline; they have a social life online

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Wrap-up

• Teenagers use the Internet as a medium to communicate amongst themselves and are heavy users

• They expose a lot of their lives and themselves online, not always realising how public they make it

• Parents and educators are unfamiliar with this usage of the Internet or see it as marginal

• Teenagers online often have little awareness of boundaries (legal, moral, safety) which also exist there

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Discussion

Thanks for your attention – discussion is open!

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