Excerpted from Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation by Larry R. Rosen, Ph.D. Copyright (c) 2007 by the author and reprinted by permisson of Palgrave Macmillan.
The following excerpt is from Larry Rosen’s book that compares the expectations and behaviors of Baby Boomers, Gen X-ers, and the MySpace generation.
On MySpace, communication is the primary activity. This includes blogging (writing one or reading and commenting on other blogs), presenting a profile, and IMing. Teens write their version of blogs in the form of bulletins or commentary and invite their “friends” to make comments. Although the site allows its members to limit who has access to their blog postings, most MySpacers allow anyone to read and comment on them. Many teens post several blog messages a day and a single blog entry can generate quite a few comments.
What do they talk about? Some entries are merely recitations of daily life—what they did today, who they saw, where they went. Others include political commentary. Many are as personal as a locked diary. As Janice, a 16-year-old high school student, told me: “I used to see a shrink but now I just write out how I feel and see what my friends have to say. It’s pretty freeing. And it saves my mom a ton of money. I think that I get better stuff from my friends anyway.”
Larry Rosen, oceanside, CA 04/08/08
Jennifer, thanks for reminding me of that! I remember thinking that I should note that in the book because you are right, it is quite a nice record to know when you felt a certain way and also how others reacted to you. I guess that could be the start of the next book!
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