Blogs, MySpace, Friendster and Alea's slave driving...

The internet is definitely the in thing with teens nowadays. Chats, surfing, Friendster, MySpace, Blogs, the internet is DEFINITELY the ‘in thing’ with teens today.

Let’s take a look at blogs. What are blogs for those of you who are like me and totally non-internet savvy, i.e. ‘lmao’ or ‘ttyl’ means gibberish to us. A blog is basically a personal website, where by a person writes articles or entries about anything and everything under the sun. They’re like diaries, except for the whole world to see! Kind of an oxymoron if you ask me. And no, I don’t mean an idiot with lots of pimple cream.

What kind of things do people write in blogs you ask? Well truth to tell, it can vary from the very personal entries, like their lives, love lives, struggles or triumphs to the more impersonal cooperate blogs which record events or happenings in an organization.

What do teens blog about mostly? The obvious answer is; drum roll please; ANGST! No, not really, but majority do. They use their blogs as a space to ‘rant’ or in simple English, make a lot of complaints about an issue or perhaps their daily lives. Another popular reason teens blog is to express themselves creatively, through humor or by posting pictures of their work or art in the website for the public to view.

There is a section in the blog which makes blogging so much fun and all the more exciting. It’s called the ‘comments’ section. Here practically anyone can give feed back on what they think of your posts or pictures. They may be anonymous, friends or strangers. Every artist or writer secretly desires this most, a critique of their work, be it negative or positive. It swings both ways because as long as there are comments, you know that your work has in some way touched a person and made them take that extra effort to leave a comment on your blog. Pretty satisfying if you have an open mind and semi thick skin.

So blogs are the bestest thing to hit earth after mini skirts, no? Well, that is debatable. Some people abuse blogs to gain attention; which is perhaps a cry for help. They post entries that a filled with crass words, racism and other negative aspects. There are even those who go as far as to write pornography, on their blogs just to get comments and their 15 minutes of glory.

So enough about blogs. What about Friendster and MySpace, two other hot assets on the internet today. Well basically they both serve the same function. They allow you to post an online profile of yourself, that is, your personal details, interests, hobbies and so forth. Not to miss out is the section where you can post photographs of yourself. Also available is what is known as a ‘media box’ where one can post videos, musical or non-musical that they personally like and want to share.

So what’s the big deal about a profile, some photos and another juke box? The answer lies in the fact that it connects you to a whole web of people with profiles, photos and juke boxes! You can add people you find interesting (assuming they find you interesting as well) to your friend list and communicate with them. It’s a revolutionary way of socializing and making friends.

Also, bear in mind that your own friends may be members of Friendster or Myspace, so its internal messaging system and bulletin system is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. It’s also not unusual to bump into long lost friends in these websites. You’ll be surprised how many of your long lost friends are actually members of these websites and it is a great way to catch up on old time and perhaps even organize a meeting in the future.

There is also a testimonial section, where friends can leave, wait for it… testimonials? Bet you didn’t see that one coming did you! So you get a little bit of a buzz when you receive testimonials from your friends which are touching or heart warming. And if you don’t like the testimonials, you can just delete them and pretend it never happened!

So these websites are definitely ‘one giant leap for mankind’, no? Well the answer is again yes and no. There are cases of abuse, especially in the photographs section. Parents are alarmed at the fact their little baby is posting provocative picture of themselves on a website and inviting perfect strangers to rate how good they look. There are those who feel compelled to show bits that are not supposed to be shown. They’re called privates after all.

To be fair, the two sites, Friendster and MySpace, have an abuse report system that works quite efficiently, minimizing the chances of this happening. Further more, users are allowed to choose the level of privacy they want for their profiles; deciding who can and who can’t view them.

Blogs, Friendster and MySpace are all great tools for teens today to utilize. With proper supervision and guidance, hopefully use of these great advances in technology will not be abused.


So here's my article for R.AGE... pretty mundane stuff... but then again it was a mundane topic. What so funny about blogs, Friendster and MySpace... I'll tell you whats NOT FUNNY... that they robbed me of an hour of sleep! Had to meet a deadline of six o'clock so I mass manufactured some humor and some information and threw it together to make an article.... I wonder if I'm getting paid for this... better ask the slave drive aKa Alea this later.... I wants monehhhh $________$