more and more teens are using blogs to do what they used to do through personal diaries , phone conversations and hanging out with friends : they reinforce friendships with classmates , they seek new friends , they test social limits , they get support from others and they get all emo ("highly emotional " in blog-speak). blogs and social sites on them, so many schools have banned them .
Go through teen pages on sites such as livejournal or myspace and see what teens do, they complain about parents and homework , using language that would make you blush . they share daily dramas, they post songs from the latest bands or pictures of themselves. they write poetry , detail their exploits and complain about each other or offer support . but mostly they simply write about their daily lives
. they never have enough - they are hooked .
"teens are having huge identity problems," says Jenny Rypkema , 19 , from waltham , Massachussetts. "So they use their blogs to communicate with friends and pour out their emotions ."
Rypkema has about 120 readers . still , she was surprised - and angry - when her dad read her blog . " i feel like family and close friends shouldn't be reading my diary in secret , " she says . "i don't snoop on their journals without telling them ."
"if it had been a paper diary , i would never have opened it ," says her father, Chris Rypkema ,53, a project manager in sattle - but , he adds , "you put something out on the Wed expecting complete strangers to read it . why be surprised if your parents is going to want to know more about you