teenagers and blogs
DESCRIPTION
A talk I gave about teenage behavior in blogs (in francophonia) and some of the educational issues involved. http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2006/10/01/teenagers-and-skyblog-cartigny-powerpoint-presentation/TRANSCRIPT
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 »
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 2
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
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 3
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
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 4
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.
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 5
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
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 6
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.
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 7
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)
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 8
Will I get in trouble?
• Provocation
• Cat-and-mouseTeenagers know very well, when asked, that anybody can access something which is on the Internet.
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 9
Try and find me!
Content and context allow identification of blogger.
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 10
Found on skyblog.com
• Popular platform with French-speaking teenagers
• Most blogs are not problematic (« clean »)
• Examples of questionable material
Bad boys
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 12
Bad boys II
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 13
Do ya think I’m sexy?
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 14
Do ya think I’m sexy? (2)
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 15
Like my bathing suit?
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 16
Do you love me?
Leave a comment if you love me
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 17
I love you
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 18
You suck!
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 19
Value judgements
• « Black or white » appreciations
• Lots of photographs and requests for comments
• Lots of judgements on appearance
• Is it healthy?
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 20
Party!
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 21
Do the parents know?
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 22
Do the parents know? (2)
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 23
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)
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 24
Not pornBedroom walls!
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 25
Dark…
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 26
Suicide
The Internet brings together those with similar interests…
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 27
Suicide (2)
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 28
Glamour suicide
http://deprimuzderetour.skyblog.com/l
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 29
Glamour suicide (2)A
ttractive op
tion
!
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 30
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
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 31
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
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 32
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
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 33
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
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 34
Discussion
Thanks for your attention – discussion is open!
04/12/23 Stephanie Booth, Lausanne 35
Ads