Princess and the Pea

Gone Blog-Wild

Is it me out in the world blogging or are girls and women getting more attention for public journaling?  Just this last week on the front page of Living&Arts in the Boston Globe, was an article entitled Dear Blog…  Several Vermont teens were interviewed about how they use blogs to post daily ruminations.  The author reported that the dramatic increase in teen bloggers “is propelled almost entirely by girls” based on Pew Internet survey.  Blogging is not unlike the old fashion way we older girls may have confessed in our green or red leather bound diaries with gold latch and key – perhaps not totally secure against family intruders but more so than today’s online versions.  It makes me wonder how Jane Austin would take to all this uncensored scribbling.

The New York Times had an article in February, Sorry Boys, This is Our Domain, about how girls dominate the social network sphere – sans video gaming – in various activities such as blogs, graphics, photos and creating websites.  Savvy little creatures, I say.  I know my 8 year old could probably build a web page from all her online Webkins experience.

It’s really not a surprise to me all this fuss about blogging. I was surprised, however, to read in the Boston Globe article that of adult Internet users only 8% are blogging. It seems so much more prevalent to me. I’ve just joined in a conversation with other mid-life bloggers, which has extended my notion of cyberhood.  Cyberhood encompasses all of us connoisseurs of online kaffe klatches, no matter what age.  From my perspective it seems that we chicks are indeed generating a lot of interesting content – and nobody has to “hear” if they don’t want to.

As I looked up these articles which I had bookmarked on del.icio.us (just love this bookmarking feature since it helps with what I call “maternal attention deficit disorder –or maternal ADD), the New York Times popped up a box offering similar articles I might be interested in.  Of course, I had to check out an article on well-to-do women bloggers (think Leslie Stahl and other notable women), entitled Boldface in Cyberspace: It’s a Women’s Domain.  I mean really, now.  It’s pretty obvious that women will chat wherever they can.  It’s part of the biological make-up.  Women socialize for the survival of the tribe.

Hooked on Tamagotchis

My girls are now hooked on Tamagotchis®, these key chain electronic games where you grow a creature – or better said, watch a blob “evolve” into some surprise pet formation. It may turn out to be male or female and over the first weeks you play with it and let it sleep, eat and poop. Yes, my seven-year old loves the latter because you can wirelessly send the poop to another Tamagotchi player as a gift. Nice way to get back at big sister.

These virtual pets have been around a long time but there’s been some sort of resurgence among the elementary school kids, which seems to have successfully overtaken the Webkins® craze. It must be the technology getting better and better – especially that kids can interact wirelessly with other players.

Apparently Rosie’s best friends, twin sisters, have married and mated their characters recently. One sister has a male pet and the other a female pet. Now that these characters are adults, they can have babies together to build a “Familitchi”. Yes, it’s true. Electronic toys for the 7-11 crowd are mating with one another.

Rosie, now 10 ½ – just about a pre-teen – gushed when she told me all about it yesterday. She was totally flushed with surprise and horror (“Isn’t that just so weird?”). It was the rage on the bus ride home. To this news my Younger screamed from the other side of the house: “Can girls get married?” (Yes, I shouted back thinking of the world at large made up of real people – and we live in Massachusetts, that liberal state). She was, of course, thinking how her Tamagotchi could mate with another female pet owned by some friend when it grows up. It was actually a good question. It made me think: Do digital humanoids or pets or what-have-you have to get married to have babyoids? Might these Tamagotchi’s break sex and gender barriers? Might they be more “alien” or androgynous, or did some game inventor not think beyond the consequences of such heterosexual, evolutionary game play.

All I know is that if it’s not some headline across the newspaper regarding sex scandals it will be these silly toys that prompt “The Talk” on how babies are made. I better learn how to play one. Might help with the explaining.

Stay tuned.

The New Cyberhood

We parents may have a conundrum on our hands.  Our kids are being raised in a culture that is rapidly embracing the transparency of personal information and social exchanges with the likes of Facebook and MySpace.  In the Jan. 21, 2008 issue of The New Yorker was an article by Lauren Collins in the “Annals of Crime” section, entitled Friend Game.  It's the story of a 13 year old girl’s suicide -- a tragically impulsive event that was triggered by ugly exchanges among her online network.  It’s been dubbed the MySpace Suicide.  It was chilling.

Yet, I’m all for these new technologies – for the positive they can provide.   In fact, creating health education on the web is a big part of my livelihood.  The social network platforms are changing how information can be posted and spread virally through teens’ networks, over the Internet, or via cell phones.

But this landscape of technology and Web 2.0 is delivering the good, bad and the ugly.  I’m torn about when to let my ten-year old have a cell phone (even though it’s my 7 year old who is lobbying on behalf of her sister, understanding this is one item that is age-related no matter what).  According to Neilson Ratings, 35% of kids ages 8-12 have a cell phone.

Their ten-year old cousin got a cell phone for Christmas -- so his mom could track him down on his afterschool bike outings with his buddies. Obiviously, there is the practical safety issue.  My girls are still mostly supervised and chauffeured to activities, so I imagine it won’t be until middle school when the tech accessories will become a staple backpack item.  I have to worry more about the sitter using her cell phone or texting whilst driving my kids around.

I’m also torn about when my girls should have email accounts.  Yet, it will happen. 

On the positive side I believe that this new technology can provide tools and education for the tough topics like sex, drugs and alcohol that is not authoritative or censored by politically-influenced education agendas.  I was happy to come across a recent article about sex ed on the web about the first inaugural SexTech conference in California.  There was a video contest and the finalists are posted here.  Pretty impressive. 

The trick will be helping my kids find a balance between cyber life and real life – to be discerning about what is helpful and healthful information and what is not.  Media literacy is no longer just about helping kids know what companies are trying to sell them or detecting unrealistic beauty ideals and aviods self-comparisons.  It’s now about understanding that what they share with others is part of their digital footprint, and learning that there are consequences to just about every kind of interaction with this new media.  Grown ups could use a dose of this education, too.  There aren’t any rules here.