In Their Words: Connecting On-line Weblogs to Developmental Processes

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-1-2009

Abstract

This paper seeks to connect adolescents' communication within on-line weblogs or blogs to developmental processes. A total of 195 English language blogs written by self-identified 14- to 18-year-olds were selected; three entries from each blog were analysed, resulting in a sample of 585 entries. Blogger demographics, self-presentation, and blog entries (format, style, content, and tone) were coded. The blog authors in our sample were overwhelmingly female and lived within the US; the majority were between 15- and 16-years of age. Bloggers utilized usernames and userpictures for self-presentation and in addition to gender, frequently presented information about their age and location. The majority of the entries used text, were narrative and reflective in style, and contained themes related to their authors' peers and everyday life. Emotional tone was present and entries with romantic, identity, and future-related themes often contained emotional tone. Blog authors seemed to be using blogs to create narratives and to reflect about the people and events in their lives. Our results show that adolescent bloggers project off-line themes to their blogs, suggesting that their on-line and off-line contexts are psychologically connected.

Publication Title

The British Journal of Developmental Psychology

Volume

27

Issue

Pt 1

First Page

219

Last Page

45

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1348/026151008x345979

PubMed ID

19972670

ISSN

0261-510X

Language

eng

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