Friday, February 20, 2009

Teenage Bloggers

By Brad Lotter

Each day, there are blogs mad by those of all ages and from all types of lifestyles. When it comes to blogs, however, teen writers are definitely on the cutting edge of this new movement. These are the teens that have become used to the internet since birth and many have an innate sense of how the blogging and the internet work.

Older writers need sort of a learning curve in order to begin blogging, but many people feel blogging software is a natural part of the internet and a more direct method of communicating than even writing in a diary.

Blogs have exploded in the teen world and have grown by leaps and bounds because teens are looking for both anonymity and visibility. The teen can tell their friends to read their blogs or write their own and there can be an automatic teen community to read and write blogs. The teen can even win praise for what he or she is writing.

Of course, with visibility usually comes the possibility of embarrassment, but the fact that it is possible to blog anonymously with an invented handle or nickname negates a lot of the potential for humiliation. Many a blogging teen lives in fear that a parent or guardian will discover his or her blog, but by publishing under an alias a teenager can spill his or her secrets without fear of being traced.

Teen writers often have few other options to be published writers outside of blogging. Magazines or journals dont often host teen writers because they lack the credibility of older writers.

Through blogging, teens can begin to gain a following of supporters without having to deal with a publisher or editor, who arent often interested in teen writers.

Blogging provides a teen with the opportunity to show off their technical aptitude, gain worldwide visibility in privacy if they so choose and build a series of readers"all without having to jump through traditional publishing hoops.

For some teenagers, blogging is even a very social endeavor that allows them to meet people with similar interests from all over the world. Many a blogging teen has discovered that having a weblog on the internet is a great way to explore self-expression and, often, to win positive feedback from new friends.

Blogging 101 is mostly about the blogging vocabulary. To understand blogs, you need to know the terms blog, platform, domain, and web host. Once you have mastered these key elements of blogging, you can enter any conversation about blogging with confidence. After you know what exactly a blog is, you will be on your way to passing the final exam of blogging 101.

The term blog is short for weblog, which comprises a series of posts online that are listed in reverse chronological order. Most blogs are test blogs but there are those who use pictures and even videos to write their blogs. If you decide to set up a blog, youll use a platform, a domain and a web host.

A platform in blogging means the computer software that helps you write the posts and bring your blogs up to date. It is also how you design the look and feel of the blog. The web host is the filing cabinet for yours and other blogs. Your computer talks with the host whenever you bring up (upload) or edit your blog.

The domain is the online address of your blog, and usually ends in dot com'. Now that you know what a blog is, what a platform is, and what domains and hosts are, congratulate yourself! You have passed blogging 101.

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