HW 7: My So-Called Blog

I agree that parents should not monitor everything that their middle school children write online. Children in middle school are going through an awkward stage in life, and going through a lot of different things. I think being able to talk about what they are going through in school and being able to vent online to absolutely anyone could be a good thing. They do need to be careful though about who they start talking to. But I do think it can be a good thing for children to blog in order to get help, opinions, and maybe even support for something they are going through. In the article “My So-Called Blog” Emily Nussbaum describes a typical middle school blog. “A result of all this self-chronicling is that the private experience of adolescence--a period traditionally marked by seizures of self-consciousness and personal confessions wrapped in layers and hidden in a sock drawer--has been made public. Peer into an online journal, and you find the operatic texture of teenage life with its fits of romantic misery, quick-change moods and sardonic inside jokes,” (Kline and Burstein, 351). Basically, Nussbaum is saying that blogging is a great way for teenagers to safely share their emotions with whomever they chose to share them with. Middle school can be a difficult time for some kids and being able to vent online to anyone and everyone can be helpful. Who needs their parents monitoring everything they’re saying? Middle school is the beginning of freedom for most kids, so blogging is a fun and easy way to start that freedom.