Invasion of the Blog Creatures: A Comparison for Teens

So far, until my poetic interlude, I have been quite positive about the possibilities of the Blog within the Library 2.0, but the downside of Blogs must be addressed. An interesting phenomena seems to be popping up, as I research the Blog in libraries: there are little to no comment postings, telling me that there certainly is a strong possibility that the Blog is not a forum for the library. Perhaps the Blog is an invasion of privacy within the library setting, where culturally and historically, we are meant to be ‘ reading’ in libraries, not ‘blogging’.

I know that there are good teen blogs out there that students and youth are interacting with, but these are occurring mostly in private spaces on the web. So, I am looking at the School Library Blog as a source for information to see what is happening with teens. I had really thought the Teen Library Blog would be popular, due to the vast rate of web 2.0 tools used by teens, such as Myspace, and particularly, Facebook. I am wondering if Library 2.0 will suffer the same ends of the fad phenomena of social software we are now beginning to see on the web, with dozens of people dropping off Facebook , due to I would suspect privacy issues? Many friends I have talked to have regretted their Facebook presence and I wondered at the time of its cyber-birth: what is wrong with good ol’ fashioned group e-mail or just singular e-mails, where you are protected, for the most part? I do understand the issues about memory, etc, but… are we not inviting in trouble trouble as we invite more and more friends?

In order to figure out what might be happening to teens I have sampled a number of sites in North America. Most had no comments posted by the teens and I haven’t found one yet that has posted more than 3 comments per post, but when I found this site, it was like a posting rainstorm compared to others so, I decided to review it and ponder what excites teens and is provocative for them.

The most commented upon site out there for school library Blogs is: Book Break : BHS’ Own Reading Rants and Raves . Why is this? Well the author does not Blog at them, she blogs with them; she invites teens to take part; she asks conversational questions about books i.e. what is your favorite book? What is the scariest book you ever read? What is the best book you read over reading break? This tells me that what youth are craving is to be asked their opinion, to participate in life, to be a part of a reading community without being alienated.

One of the anonymous responders said that Even Cowgirls Get the Blues was the best book she had read because it made her feel like being different was okay. This is a massively important concept in communicating and interacting with teens. They do not want to be excluded by society, but as they grow into young adults and experience all the pain of puberty , adolescents and finally young adulthood, society continually throws at them, at us, images of the perfect man and woman that are absolutely impossible to live up to. If someone can inspire in them a sense of confidence in themselves, be it a writer or a blogger then so be it so…blog on, read on, rage on!! Teenagers need a public forum of acceptance and obviously this Berkeley High Blog is beginning to reach some of the youth out there who love to read.

So, why is this Blog reaching teens and Not Beverly High School ‘s Book Splat with a much more compelling title and design. Perhaps web savvy kids do not just judge a blog by its cover? The key is in the questioning conversation of this Blog. They are engaging to youth, as I have described above. The design? Not for me… but perhaps for you… I much prefer the more simply designed Beverly Hills Book Splat, sporting lusciously designed teen book covers – I now want to read them all!!! This review is coming soon to a Blog Screen near you! But this is not about me, it is about teens and these teens did not choose Book Splat! Hmmm!

The Berkley (Michigan, that is!) Book Break Blog design is distracting but perhaps, more post-modern! In a wonderful book on children and learning on the web called The Flickering Mind, Oppenheimer writes about the reprogramming of the circuitry of a child’s brain due to the web-technology now being implemented as learning tools for literacy in this post-modern world (2006). And so I wonder if this particular design is more pleasing to the eye of the contemporary teen due to a different circuitry patterns and even new ways they perceive and view screens. One thing I did notice is that I just could not find the Blog link on the main institution’s web site. Very strange indeed!! These kids must be compelled to this Blog because it is super impossible to find. Perhaps you can find it and if anyone does, please comment!!!! Check out the home page for Berkley High Library aka BHS LMC

Suggestions: Although this site is relatively easy to use, and obviously more popular than most, the author needs to clean it up, post regularly and take off the double image from the front page. Also, the Blog needs to be high in the ranking on the Table of Contents at Both BHS main Site and the BHS LMC (library home page) as it is impossible for patrons to find. I myself would not use this site, but obviously students have enjoyed and so…. a good clean up is overdue.

Rating: 7.0 !

Here ends my seventh awakening!

~ by cyberfin on December 1, 2007.