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.
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