Reflecting on "US youths use internet to create," from BBC NEWS

I think the idea of web blogging is cool, the idea of sharing thoughts on music, pictures, artwork, and stories! My sister showed me her web blog, and she had a lot of things on there dealing with pictures of her friends. I believe blogging lets us copyright our thoughts and interest faster then on a personal website or e-mail, so other people can see them quicker. Blogging is not just for personal use, but blogging also creates the link between communication through passive thinking and active learning. I like how Barlow focuses on soaking up someone else’s thoughts or beliefs on a subject or personal matter and taking that information and expanding on it. That what I want people to feel, I want them to soak up my information my thoughts, that why I'm embraced to continue blogging.

That's what I believe the Internet is all about, sharing information and communicating through ideas and beliefs at rapid speed. I believe that the idea of communicating with other youths through blogging has become a new kind of trend like e-mail, but better! It's like having an e-mail in which it’s a personal webpage, and it’s really easy to edit, take stuff out, and add new stuff. Finding out that this blogging trend is being "spearheading" by girls, blogging to be seems to be similar to the days when young teenage girls use to share scrapbooks and journals with pictures with friends.

From the statistical views it said that,"

-Although about half knew it was wrong to do so, more than half (51%) said they downloaded music, compared to 18% of adults.
-A third (31%) said they downloaded video so that they could watch them when they wanted.
-Boys were more likely to be the downloaders than girls, the research found.
-Roughly half said they did not care about copyright issues when it came to downloading.
-Although 30% of downloaders said they used peer-to-peer file-sharing networks to get their music,
-about 30% also said they used paid-for services such as iTunes.
-Out of those young people who do download music and video from the web, 75% of them agreed that downloading and file-sharing was so easy that it was unrealistic to expect people not to do it." (BBC NEWS)

"Today's online teens have grown up amidst the chaos of the digital copyright debate, and it shows," said Mary Madden, co-author of the report.” At a time when social norms around digital content don't always appear to conform with the letter of the law, many teens are aware of the restrictions on copyrighted material, but believe it's still permissible to share some content for free." (BBC NEWS)

Blogging, from my personal experience, has opened a new door (in my mind) towards how we can share information or communicate easier with other bloggers towards sharing information and ideas. The idea that blogging doesn't cost anything is great, and its easy to set up without worrying about signing up for another term or paying monthly fees. Adding pictures is easy too. With a blog, it doesn't have to be about one specific topic or even be personal, and the breathing about it is, you can add write something down and save it for later to publish. I know when you have a personal web site, it might be hard updating or adding information frequently. With a blog, you don't have to wait long to see what you published. Time is a valuable thing, and I would have to say that, I hate waiting for things to happen.

Self-expression I believe is an important part of blogging, in which you can find other people with blogs have similar interest. The idea of crediting people, in which you can post a commit on their web blog is a great idea. I believe Blogging is active and passive at the same time. You can write something down, and someone can commit on it later. Then, other people would have commits on what they thought or agree with you or someone else, and you can commit on their thoughts. You can also get key insights from other people that commit your blog. The idea of posting commits I believe is the best way to talk about people's ideas and beliefs and share your thoughts. I would say blogging is probably better then an e-mail and quicker then a personal web page. In a chat room, you only come upon specific areas of information. When your blogging, you learn about how one thinks and you learn what they are interested in right away.

On the idea of youths picking up this new technical enhancement towards communication, I believe more people will switch to blogging than setting up a personal web. I feel that blogging has become or is becoming a new social icon in cyberspace. Not so much toward the chat room aspect, but a more in-depth fundamental practice towards learning about self-interest and education.

Readings/Source:

"US youth use internet to create." BBC NEWS Friday. 4 November 2005. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4403574.stm)