Mookie Riffic

But this pisses me off. (Thanks to Jen for the link)

So lets start at the beginning (I'm going to tear this article apart).

If your teen isn't text messaging -- chances are they are blogging. That is journaling their innermost thoughts for all to read on-line. Today blogs are giving teens the creative outlook they need to express what they feel, think and do on a daily basis.

*Blinks* First off, I can, and often do IM and Blog at the same time. Second, I don't put my "inner most thoughts" here. I'd be insane, because first off, my parents DO read my Blog. And second a blog isn't just talking about personal life.

he clicks on his Web log, or blog — an on line diary he keeps on a Web site called LiveJournal — and checks for responses from his readers.

*Aggravated Sigh* I've said it before, and I'll say it again. A LiveJournal is NOT a Blog. A journal is a place to whine. A blog is a place to whine and have good times.

Lets skip forward a couple of paragraphs to the next passage I've decided needed my personal opinion.

The teenagers who post journals have (depending on your perspective) a degraded or a relaxed sense of privacy; their experiences may be personal, but there’s no shame in sharing.

Do I do this? I don't think so. And to some degree I believe there is a shame in sharing. I'm sorry but you don't go onto a blog/journal and just post every single intimate detail of your life. Well some do, but I don't believe in it. Posting your entire life will take up your ENTIRE LIFE. You wont do anything else. A teenager doesn't post about the first time they have sex, or if they smoke weed. You just don't do that. You don't post that you watched a scary movie and peed in your bed. You don't post your deepest secrets. But thats my opinion. And if you just have too, get a journal, not a blog.

a new kind of intimacy, a sense that they are known and listened to. This is their life, for anyone to read. As long as their parents don’t find out.

Wow. I guess I just defy all of the laws of nature. First I'm not supposed to exist. And now I'm not supposed to blog because-Heaven Forbid- my father reads!

And thats another difference between a Journal and a Blog. A Blog wont get you grounded (mostly) if your parents don't like what you write. Why? Because you don't post stuff that you know will get you in trouble! In a blog you use common sense. Generally its known that you don't do certain things, for example, you don't post about a particularly smelly fart, or like I said before, the first time you had sex-the day after! Now the whole sex thing, some people do post it, but generally its not until YEARS later. Not the next day. Granted there are exceptions

On one final note:

To read more of this story, click here.

Story provided courtesy of the New York Times. Copyright © 2004 by New York Times.

The New Your Times sucks. They shouldn't make you pay for a news article. Not when they already posted a good chunk of it!

So anyway. That article has me kinda mad, but its Okay. I just hope, the author of that article learns that there IS a difference between a blog and a journal. Either that or I'm overacting. < mocking > But thats Okay. I'm a teenager! < /mocking of psychiatrists>