I know now Im sheltered. And my kids are sheltered, too. One of my boys has a middle school girl in the area whos into the Web. This is a forum where us old folks are neophytes. Young kids are building dynamic experiences on the Web. I have a nephew whos building Web sites for his friends hes 11!
But I digress.
This is about the middle-to-teen-years angst and exploration. You see, my boys daughter has a Web site (hes a tech head like me). She’s also got a blog. Two actually.
If you wanna know about teens, the place to be, it appears, is Xanga. This little spot on the Web appears to have em. From all over the country. With topics all over the map.
I made a pit stop on a blog by a 14-year-old girl with two kids. And shes not apologetic. The posts werent angry. She seems to really care for her kids and has lots of support from her family. Mom and dad are not married, but theyve been together for 30 years. Her recent post lauds her two brothers (what 14-year-old girl does that?) for taking care of her 15-month-old and her 1-month-old on Saturdays, letting her get some extra sleep.
The text on these sites runs the gamut, from eloquent, to stinging, to artistic to introspective. One 15-year-old boy had a song playing on his site as he waxed poetic about the love missing from his life. His boys told him to keep his chin up; that that love would flow soon.
Teen boys giving each other support. Who would have imagined?
Blogrings constitute people of like mind and like subjects. You can join together people from New York, Cincinnati, Dallas and D.C. Who of us pushing 40 or more knew that many people from such diverse areas while we were in middle school?
My man sent me a link to the number of people signed up on Xanga from the Triad area:
Asheville – 772 members
Chapel Hill – 512 members
Charlotte – 2133 members
Durham – 521 members
Fayetteville – 1314 members
Goldsboro – 390 members
Greensboro – 1168 members
Greenville – 455 members
Hickory – 589 members
High Point – 528 members
Jacksonville – 986 members
Raleigh – 3436 members
Rocky Mount – 327 members
Wilmington – 622 members
Winston-Salem – 994 members
As my boy tells me, theres a million stories out there. Its time for me and maybe you — to start reading a few.
Time to do a little research as my girls move into the age of discovery.