#9: Blogging in general
Ugh…my energy for blogging is seriously waning at this point in the semester. I do have some thoughts about blogging in general that I suppose I could share here.
Over “break” (ha) I did read two teen books with blogging as a general theme. Working with children/teens/schools is at the very bottom of my list of library jobs I would consider after graduation, so I’m not familiar with lit. for those age groups. Let me tell you, right now I’m not too impressed.
Issue #1: In Grace Notes, Grace has a part-time job at the local grocery store to earn money to pay for the server where her blog is housed, and her “genius” junior-high stepsister set up and maintains the blog for her. The book was published in 2006—does the author really believe that kids wouldn’t have discovered applications like Blogger that are FREE and relatively EASY (no genius stepsisters required)?
Issue #2: In The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez, Raisin starts a blog and gives the address to two friends from home after she moves across the country. She debates whether or not to let her friends make comments on her entries, because it is her “personal space.” So, she wants her friends to read her entries but not give her feedback and support. Eventually she decides she would like her friends to comment; isn’t that the point of a blog: you share your views and open them up for debate?
In both books, the girls use their blogs as an outlet to complain about the other kids at school and are sort of oblivious to the fact that blogs are public; inevitably, the wrong kids find their blogs and turn their lives upside down.
The fact that I randomly picked 2 books off the shelf that dealt with the same theme makes me realize that kids really don’t understand that whatever they post on the internet is most like public information. Maybe this type of book will help kids understand there may be consequences when they post personal info on the Internet? To its credit, in the back of Grace Notes, there is a page with “Internet Safety Tips.”
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At the end of May, my boyfriend M will begin hiking the Appalachian Trail, heading south from Maine to Georgia. It should take about 5-6 months for him to hike the 2175 mile trail. A few years ago, a woman from my hometown hiked the AT and kept a blog along the way; the local newspaper linked to it and even included some excerpts so people could follow her journey. I suggested that M create a blog before he leaves, and then he could update all of us at home when he stopped in towns to resupply. M thought that was a great idea—except he wants to email me what he’s doing and then I can post it—he wants someone to “edit” his posts and he says he won’t have time for that while he’s out there.
To me, the point of a personal blog is that the content is raw, unpolished, and very real. If I “clean up” what he emails to me and post it on his blog for him, that’s kind of defeating the purpose of blogging about his AT adventure.
Over “break” (ha) I did read two teen books with blogging as a general theme. Working with children/teens/schools is at the very bottom of my list of library jobs I would consider after graduation, so I’m not familiar with lit. for those age groups. Let me tell you, right now I’m not too impressed.
Issue #1: In Grace Notes, Grace has a part-time job at the local grocery store to earn money to pay for the server where her blog is housed, and her “genius” junior-high stepsister set up and maintains the blog for her. The book was published in 2006—does the author really believe that kids wouldn’t have discovered applications like Blogger that are FREE and relatively EASY (no genius stepsisters required)?
Issue #2: In The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez, Raisin starts a blog and gives the address to two friends from home after she moves across the country. She debates whether or not to let her friends make comments on her entries, because it is her “personal space.” So, she wants her friends to read her entries but not give her feedback and support. Eventually she decides she would like her friends to comment; isn’t that the point of a blog: you share your views and open them up for debate?
In both books, the girls use their blogs as an outlet to complain about the other kids at school and are sort of oblivious to the fact that blogs are public; inevitably, the wrong kids find their blogs and turn their lives upside down.
The fact that I randomly picked 2 books off the shelf that dealt with the same theme makes me realize that kids really don’t understand that whatever they post on the internet is most like public information. Maybe this type of book will help kids understand there may be consequences when they post personal info on the Internet? To its credit, in the back of Grace Notes, there is a page with “Internet Safety Tips.”
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At the end of May, my boyfriend M will begin hiking the Appalachian Trail, heading south from Maine to Georgia. It should take about 5-6 months for him to hike the 2175 mile trail. A few years ago, a woman from my hometown hiked the AT and kept a blog along the way; the local newspaper linked to it and even included some excerpts so people could follow her journey. I suggested that M create a blog before he leaves, and then he could update all of us at home when he stopped in towns to resupply. M thought that was a great idea—except he wants to email me what he’s doing and then I can post it—he wants someone to “edit” his posts and he says he won’t have time for that while he’s out there.
To me, the point of a personal blog is that the content is raw, unpolished, and very real. If I “clean up” what he emails to me and post it on his blog for him, that’s kind of defeating the purpose of blogging about his AT adventure.
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