Silicon Insider: Teen Blogs

July 9, 2004 -- The Web was supposed to bring us all together in some great digital kumbaya. Thanks to video beheadings and various jihad sites, we all know better than that — except perhaps for the fine job the Internet has done in bringing the world together in a universal hatred of the United States.

But what if there is another, even greater schism emerging in the Web, one that reflects the most fundamental division of all in nature: male versus female?

A clue to that potential fate of the Net can be found in a recent article in the San Jose Mercury-News dealing with the rise of blogging among Silicon Valley's teenagers.

According to the article, a study by the Perseus research firm has found that 52 percent of all Web bloggers (that is, Web diarists) are teenagers. Add kids in their 20s and the number jumps to 92 percent.

The rest, I suspect are hobbiests, shut-ins, compulsives, prisoners and (not that there is much difference from the aforementioned) several hundred mainstream bloggers, as well as a herd of self-proclaimed political pundits. This column, though it pretends to be otherwise, with its regular comments about kids and vacations is essentially a blog too, only on a fancy platform. But leaving us bloviating old fools aside, the real action in blogging these days lies with the kids.

Heartland of Teen Blogging

As you might expect, the heartland of teen blogging, like so many things virtual, is right here in Silicon Valley.

This came as news to me — so, as usual, I consulted my in-house teenager. He made his usual shrug and replied, "You mean, like, Xanga? Well, actually, it's not cool anymore. Everybody's using, like, GreatestJournal and LiveJournal."

Firing up AOL Instant Message, he said, "Here. Lemme show you." He called up the names of some of his friends on AIM, and pointed out, under the individual profiles, the links to various blog sites.