big girl's blouse

Apparently girls like to blog but boys like to upload video. So I can blame my blogging habit fairly and squarely on my mother making me wear dresses as a child. But then I blame everything on that so really need to start humming another tune. And it's girls from low-income & single parent families who blog. Is there something there about a need to be heard - and a need to create an identity?

Also US teens can be more savvy about accessibility & privacy than adults. Only 21% of teens never restrict access to their photos online vs. 39% of adults. They may simply have more to hide (but I doubt it) or the repercussions for not hiding might be worse. And, let's face it, hiding stuff from adults is fun. Also, girls are more restrictive than boys*.

Ross comments that through the new communications media we are discovering our "latent humanity". To put it another way, we don't just discover or share who we are, we create it. Adolescence is a time when these acts of creation are at their most intense. And this creative activity is naturally social.

This social self creation weaves technologies into our natures. So its hardly surprising that people start to experience them as appendages. Sever the connection and the addict experiences "phantom limb pain". Fortunately teens are far more adaptable than adults. Most of them seem to be giving up on email anyways.

*I am ill-equipped to discuss this topic (not that it's ever stopped me before) but women have always had to work that bit harder to establish their identities than men. The boys with their videos ("look at me, look at me") vs. the girls with their blogs ("listen to me, acknowledge me and what I am becoming").