14 DAY TRIAL // Many parents and sociologists argue that the Internet can be used to promote misbehavior and to encourage bad deeds, and examples to support their claims can be readily found. But a recent investigation has determined that adults may have nothing to fear in the case of teens using blogging services. The scientists themselves were amazed to learn that most teens that kept a blog used it to nurture their relationships with their friends, or to build what the team refers to as a sense of community. The study uncovered few instances in which the authors were pushing others in the “wrong” direction, LiveScience reports.
The work was conducted by specialists at the Ohio State University (OSU), in the United States, who took it upon themselves to keep track of some 100 blogs, all authored by teens in the country. The vast majority of the investigated websites were found to be having a positive message, and the team members say that this is a welcoming finding, amid so many websites that promote various cruel behaviors. According to OSU associate professor of social work Dawn Anderson-Butcher, it may be that blogging could be used as a therapeutic tool, to help teens that have trouble expressing themselves in positive ways do so online.
“We looked at every quote, and the kids wrote about very few problem behaviors. They showed a lot of creative expression through poetry, lyrics and song. It was very exciting – and for me, positive – to see the typical developmental activities that they were writing about in their blogs,” says Anderson-Butcher, adding that most of the posts were about studying, spending time with families, going to church and participating in extra-curricular activities. All analyzed blogs were taken from the online website Xanga, the team says.
“Think about the other things they could be doing. We know that when kids are bored, mostly between the hours of 3:00-6:00 pm, that's when they're most at risk for using alcohol or having [intercourse], for example. It's the time when their parents are working and they are often unsupervised. But instead these youth sought out social expression via Xanga,” the expert adds. She says that the posts used in the study were retrieved in 2007, as the blogging website is not so popular with kids today. The teens rather post their messages on Facebook, where increased security settings only allow for their actual friends to see what they have to say.