HW 7: My So-Called Blog

I think it would be ridiculous for parents to monitor everything that their child is writing online. One would hope that the parents would have enough confidence in their children to know that what they are writing online should remain private, and is most likely nothing horrible. I believe that middle school children especially need online resources to know that other people may be having the same problems as them. Ultimately, I feel that online journals are just a phase that young adolescents go through. In “My So-Called Blog”, Emily Nussabaum states, “ But for a significant number, they become a way of life, a daily record of a community’s private thoughts- a kind of invisible high school that floats above the daily life of teenagers.” (Kline and Burstein 351) Nussabaum is right in stating that the online life for most teenagers is a way of interacting with their friends, almost like another high school. Sometimes teenagers have a hard time talking about their insecurities, especially to their parents. Middle School is a very awkward time for most adolescents. Blogs such as LiveJournal and Xanga provide an outlet for some teens to get out what is bothering them and in turn find others who are having the same types of problems. Nussabaum explains, “ If teen bloggers give something up by sloughing off a self-protective layer, they get something back too- a new kind of intimacy, a sense that they are known and listened to.” (Kline and Burstein 352) In reality that’s the whole reason that most young adolescences blog, to feel that they are listened to, to let out their feelings and hopefully get something back in return. I think it would be silly for parents to track everything that their child is writing about online. Even though some things may be upsetting, the majority of the posting will be about daily events and expressing who they really are without feeling as if they are putting themselves out there too much.