Blogging craze hits MV High Blogging craze hits MV High (April 08, 2005)

Teens use online journals for fun, to vent, and meet new friends

By Robin Lanam and Iris Arreola

Did you ever have one of those cute little notebooks with a lock and key where you wrote all about what happened that day at school?

I did. I wrote about everything that went on at school. If anybody, even my best friends, tried to read it, I would have freaked out. I would never have let anybody near my private thoughts. But that was then.

Now there are Web sites such as xanga.com, myspace.com, blogger.com, and livejournal.com. A plethora of sites exist all over the Internet, enticing teens and others into the world of online blogging.

These sites take the place of the furry little notebook. Instead of pen and paper, all you need is a computer with Internet access and you're on your way to creating an online journal. However, with strangers now able to load your Web page and read your thoughts, you must write knowing that others are watching.

A site was even created to track the trends of blogs - www.blogpulse.com. It allows users to type in a word or person they would like to track, and, voila -- a graph is provided of how often in the last two months bloggers have talked about the object or person specified.

This fad of blogging has long permeated Mountain View youth culture. On xanga.com, one may find a blog ring -- a social ring that bloggers on xanga may join to be linked to people of similar interest -- called **s.p.a.r.t.a.n.s.b.a.b.y** that encourages all Mountain View High School students to join and show school pride. Another blog ring called MounTain VieW_BAdminTOn gathers past and current Mountain View badminton players together.

Jessica Jang, a Mountain View High School sophomore, said that she uses her xanga blog to complain about life. Furthermore, she uses it to "tell people that she's angry at someone," but without using that person's name, of course.

Other Mountain View teens use their online journal for similar purposes. Sabrina Ha, a Mountain View High graduate and a current student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo recently stated, "I know plenty of people who use blogs to vent, including myself." She also uses online blogging to stay in touch with friends who go to different colleges.

Other teens like to tell funny things that happened to them, or random jokes that they came across that day. Some post their drawings or stories. Others take personality quizzes at sites like www.quizilla.com and post the results on their journals.

However, this sharing of ideas happens only on half of the blogging sites. The other half is dedicated to the sharing of pictures.

Sites like www.myspace.com allow users to load numerous pictures. Myspace.com also offers a place to write journal entries, although the main focus is on photos. This format has allowed users to meet new people through their photos rather than just their thoughts - a format which many people find easier and more comfortable. The site's instant messaging system allows users to establish contact with other users, almost like a dating service. In fact, when you join myspace.com, you may select "dating" as the reason for joining.

"A lot of my friends use [myspace.com] and they have like 200 friends [who they met on myspace.com]," says Mountain View High School sophomore Genny DiLeonardo. "It's funny. It actually has turned into a dating service."

Many Mountain View teens are engrossed in the world of blogging. Parents may worry that blogging could expose their children to the scary outside world and its dangers, but for right now, the kids are enjoying themselves. With blogging, they may meet new people and express their frustrations with the world - without lashing out at the parents themselves.

Blogging also allows teens to keep in contact with friends from far away, without the hassle of writing tons of postcards every month or spending hours on the phone. In a way, blogging helps Mountain View teens to be part of a bigger community of teens all over the world. (Some blogging sites such as livejournal.com have multi-lingual options.) Junior Robin Lanam and sophomore Iris Arreola both attend Mountain View High School.

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