Smells Like Teen Spirit

Teen bloggers engage in positive, socially-bonding behavior, rather than isolation or negativity.  

Contrary to popular misconceptions about teenagers today, they don’t go online to post photos of themselves getting drunk or donning sexy duds, but rather to mention their church activities or studies, say researchers at Ohio State University, who examined the online behavior of 100 teen bloggers from around the United States. Furthermore, rather than isolate themselves, teen bloggers use the Internet to build and stay in touch with their communities, the study showed.

To find out what kinds of behaviors teens blog about, Anderson-Butcher and her students looked at blog entries on Xanga for a month—Facebook profiles could not be examined due to privacy settings.

Rather than document drug use, sexual behavior or rebellious attitudes, teens were more likely to discuss upcoming exams or church activities. One typical blog entry reads: "OK! Now my 4th quarter is startin' and I am sooo scared b/c I didn't start it off very well in honors Geometry and Biology and I'm scared that I'm not gonna get a good grade (A) by end of the year. Plus finals so I'm soooo dead. Pray 4 me guyz!"  

Another says: "Wuts up every1? Just got back from church. Yeah it was oh so exciting. I have to go to church at 5 instead of 7 every Wednesday since I play keyboard in the band."  

While teens are apt to record feeling of boredom (65 percent), Anderson-Butcher notes that it is better that they a blogging about it than engaging in risky behavior, especially during after school hours, which is when most kids who engage in risky activities do so.

What inspired the professor to examine risk-taking behavior and teen blogging? “A group of students studying in the area of positive youth development with me at OSU were interested in the topic,” Anderson-Butcher tells demo dirt.

“As young adults, they were beginning to use the medium for their own social networking,” she explains. “We began discussing whether it was a pro-social or anti-social activity. The pilot study is a first step in exploring the answer to that question.”  

The main message of the study, Anderson-Butcher says, is that typical teenage online behavior tends to be positive.

“For me, the finding that the majority of the text within these blogs related to typical adolescent positive behaviors and activities, as opposed to anti-social, problematic issues [is the takeaway message],” she notes.

While some adults may raise eyebrows at the innocence of online teen blogging, the researcher adds, “My students weren’t so surprised.”

Most surprising, has been public reaction to the research. “I’ve been amazed at the public interest in this study,” Anderson-Butcher adds. “Of all the research I have done over the years in positive youth development, this paper is getting the most publicity. It seems like the public is pleased with the results.”

Anderson-Butcher says that this research merits future study because it was exploratory, and the researchers faced some limitations. “For instance, we only looked at 100 postings over a 30 day period on a public site,” she explains. “Although we randomly selected participants, we can’t be sure this reflects the general population, [and so on]."

"With funding, a more rigorous research design would allow us to deepen our understanding of adolescents’ utilization of this medium," Anderson-Butcher maintains. "Clearly there is a lot we still don’t know about how youth use this medium and for what purposes. No doubt the answer to this question changes all the time, especially as new technologies are developed and mainstreamed in the public.”