things that make you go "hmmmmmmmm"

“Some 57% of online teens create content for the internet. That amounts to half of all teensages 12-17, or about 12 million youth. These Content Creators report having done one or more of the following activities: create a blog; create or work on a personal webpage; create or work on a webpage for school, a friend, or an organization; share original content such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos online; or remix content found online into a new creation” (Lenhart & Madden, 2005, p.2).
Lenhart and Madden’s report, “Teen Content Creators and Consumers” was great. It reaffirmed that I, a 25 year-old internet user, am not so different than a 17 year-old user. In fact my online activities mirror young adult’s activities. According to the report, young adults engage in the following activities:
- Blogging
- Instant messaging
- Creating myspace profiles
- Download music and videos for free
- Share files
Really, the information in this article did not inform me of anything that I didn’t know or assume. I think that, personally, the importance of this article lies in its ability to illustrate that there is not such a gap between the young adult and the “adult” in various areas. For example, both demographics want to keep in touch with those they love. We demonstrate this by IMing loved ones, leaving comments on loved one’s blogs, messaging and leaving comments on our friend’s facebook, friendster or myspace pages. Additionally, both young adults and adults have a need to express themselves and their thoughts. We (both adults and YA) can achieve this through creation of art, through colors and through text. These creative and expressive endeavors may be displayed on a blog, a wiki, a webpage or a myspace profile. Another desire both adults and YA share is in entertainment. We can get our celebrity gossip through blogs, search for old friends/lovers on myspace to see how they “exist” without us, find and download free mp3s to play on the bus, find and down free videos to watch immediately or a later date and/or get the news via various vechicles.
Lenhart has another interesting article, “Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview”. In this article she explores how young adults use social networking sites such as facebook and myspace. She found that young adults use these sites to meet new friends, making plans, maintain friendships and flirting. This may not come as a surprise to the readers of this entry, but I use myspace for the same things! Nothing says friendship like leaving a picture comment on a friend’s page of him or her in a compromised condition. Additionally, I use myspace as a means of keeping in touch with long distance friends. It is a great way to comment on a new haircut or drawing even though you are not physically there. This is achieved by the friend adding the picture to his or her profile or his or her pictures. In fact, I have met friends, some of my best friends through myspace. When I was living in Atlanta, Scott, now one of my bffs, found my profile and messaged me. He was a cyclist and had a bike crew, “Wheels of Fire”. On my profile I have one of my interests as riding a road bike. He asked me if I would be interested in joining his crew and riding. The short of the long story is that one day after he contacted me we met up and cycled around the city and now we are bffs. Moral of the story: socially networking online ROCKS!! And so do Yas!

FYI
I think that it would be interesting to find articles/reports on how many young adults have rss feeds, which sites they have rss feeds from, how many young adults tag websites and how they choose appropriate terms to tag websites.

Lenhart and Madden article can be found
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/a/100/about_staffer.asp