It's about this.
I am this guy.
[South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Tuesday, September 16, 2003, pages 1E-2E]
By Liz Doup
Staff Writer
Even if you don't know Jordon Kalilich you can know all about him.
He's 14, plays rhythm guitar and loves the Brendan Leonard Show.
He just started a new school in Pompano Beach and hasn't made friends yet. One day he found himself eating lunch solo.
But he's coping better than his sister, in his opinion, at least. And he already met a girl he finds... well... interesting.
You know this, and more, about Jordon because you've just read his online journal, known as a Web log or "blog."
Think of these blogs as the 21st century version of ages-old diaries. Except they're not private. Bloggers typically share their musings with the world, via the Internet. It's more like chatting over a cyber picket fence.
"In a single generation the idea of a diary has done a 180-degree flip," says Robert Thompson, a professor of TV and popular culture at Syracuse University. "It's gone from something so intimate you'd rather die than have someone see it, to something so public that kids now brag about how many hits their blog gets."
Blogs, already popular with tech-savvy teens, now show up everywhere, from the business world, where they serve as marketing tools, to the latest pop fiction with author Pamela Ribon writing about a twentysomething posting false stories on her blog in Why Girls Are Weird. Presidential hopefuls are busy blogging, too, though their postings are more self-serving than self-revealing.
Though blogs started showing up in the mid-'90s, look for them to mushroom now that AOL has offered free blog-publishing software to its 25 million U.S. members. Google, the search engine, recently bought blogger.com -- a popular Web site to build your own blog -- a sign that blogging is looking like big business.
But the real attraction of blogs in our celebrity-worshiping culture is this: It offers everyone a worldwide stage.
"Even if you can't have your own TV show or movie, now you can be the star of your own Web show," Thompson says.
Teens love 'em
For all their popularity, blogs hold a special place for teens who weigh in with classmate gossip, comments on the hottest boys, or girls, and opinions on everything from the latest movie to the newest band.
Some kids stick strictly with words, technically an online journal. Others create a true blog, which includes links to Web sites that interest the writer. Some are a bit of both -- a personal journal along with Web sites.
Some creators share their Web sites only with friends. (In fact, some people interviewed for this story didn't want their blog addresses published. The musings are too personal, they said.)
Others want the world to read and respond; they provide everything from their e-mail to a "comment" area on their blogs.
No matter what form the journal/blog takes, "Everyone seems to have them," says Jasmine Jeffers, 13, of Plantation. "It's just a cool thing to do."
A recent Jasmine entry: High school is a lot more complicated... obviously. But the people there are a lot more intelligent. And a lot cooler. There's this awesome anarchist girl in my research class... yesterday was marching rehearsal... I am so totally sick of "In the Stone" that it isn't funny. It is a nice song... but playing it for 8 hours a week. UGH.
Jordon, the guitar player and new kid in school, says he "just writes what's going on in my mind. What's happening."
Kids have the time -- and inclination -- to read other kids' blogs. They use them to communicate with friends, posting comments about parents, teachers and kids that can sting. And sometimes their comments come back to haunt them.
Jordan Osserman, 14, of Boca Raton, regrets something he wrote out of jealousy when a friend bested him at a video game.
"We talked about it afterward and got it resolved," he says. "But I try to be careful now."
Journal writing -- whether with a quill or computer keyboard -- is an age-old technique for sorting out thoughts and emotions. It can be an effective way to unleash anger and dissect problems.
"It gives you the opportunity to look at your feelings and your experiences," says Pamela Hall, a Fort Lauderdale clinical psychologist. "By writing it out, things can get clearer."
Pedro Alcocer, 18, agrees. "After I write, I feel like I understand what I'm feeling a little better," he says. In his blog, Alcocer muses about heading to college at the University of Florida and leaving Miami, where he's lived for 11 years.
... I can't, however, honestly say that it'll all stay the same... For a while, it will be friendship by proxy... I'm lucky, because a couple of my great friends are helping me make the move by going up there with me and staying a few days. Yay. If any sadness does hit, I figure it'll hit when they leave...
Links and essays
All blogs aren't quite so cathartic. Celebrity blogs, for instance, entertain while keeping famous folks seemingly accessible to fans.
Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, for instance, weighs in on his love of photography and thoughts on the game. After the recent unexpected loss to Houston: I hate losing, especially when we are supposed to win. He also provides a few favorite Web sites, with links to ESPN and his foundation.
Then you have adults using blogs as information organizers. Knox North, 47, a Boca Raton businessman, adds comments to high-tech news items he posts. But even he gets personal at times.
A July 20 entry: "Interesting! I saw a ring snake today. Fortunately not poisonous Ring Snake." The comment links to a Web site with information and a photograph of the snake.
"Before, I'd add Web sites to my list of favorites," he says. "Now I add them to my blog."
Nova Southeastern University instructor Kathleen Dixon Donnelly, 52, writes with an eye toward publishing. Her musings are polished essays on everything from being on unemployment, despite having a doctorate in communications, to an interview with her Irish husband on the movie The Magdalene Sisters.
"I'm really careful about what I write," she says. "With younger people it's not that big a deal to put their lives out there. They'd be comfortable with a camera on them all day long. It's like The Truman Show."
Nothing's private
Maybe the bigger message of blogs is about the need to hear our own voice and the younger generation's comfort level with telling the world every little thing.
It isn't surprising, considering today's teens grew up with reality-based TV, dating to 1992 with MTV's The Real World. Teens only know a hyper-confessional universe where the bigger the problems, the higher the ratings.
That's due, in part, to their elders who rebelled against a buck up and button-your-lip world. In the '60s, kids wanted to "Let it all hang out." In the '90s, the Internet made it possible.
"But while it's out there for all the world to see, the world isn't necessarily seeing it," Thompson points out. "The fact is that 99.9 percent of the world could care less what little Jimmy thinks about Ashton Kutcher's movie."
Indeed, Jordon Kalilich echoes many bloggers when he says: "I'm not as interested in reading about other people as I am writing about myself."
Still, it's a mistake to think that anything on the Net is ever private.
Some writers wrongly assume their public thoughts are anonymous because they don't use real names -- theirs or the people they write about.
But a blog creates a public record that friends, family and employers -- present and future -- can possibly peruse. With enough details, even the anonymous can turn recognizable.
Just ask kids who've been trashed in someone's journal. Somehow, they always seem to know. Kids talk, and other bloggers tip them off.
Even being open about yourself can create problems. Psychologist Hall, for instance, describes the real-life conflict between a woman who has gone public with her mental health problems and her husband, who thinks others don't need to know.
"People need to realize they can open a Pandora's box," Hall says.
"It might feel good to write something, but five years down the road, you could look at it and think, 'Oh, my God.'"
Donnelly, the teacher, understands that time changes how things look. Just recently she came across a diary she wrote about age 10.
"It was a little pretentious and embarrassing," she says. "I hope I don't look back on what I'm doing now and think, 'Ohhhh, that was bad.'"
PHOTOS
[No image available]
A COOL THING TO DO: Jasmine Jeffers works on her blog from the bedroom of her Plantation home. (Staff photo/Michael Laughlin)
SHARING: Jordon Kalilich, 14, at the computer he uses to keep his blog at his Deerfield Beach home. (Staff photo/Anastasia Walsh)
CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG
Dozens of host sites, including blogger.com, livejournal.com, diaryland.com, among others, give step-by-step instructions on setting one up. And the software makes it easy to post links to other Web sites.
Cost ranges from free, if you don't mind ads dotting your journal, to monthly charges of $10 or so depending on various features. That includes everything from customizing the blog with your own graphics to the ability to measure a blog's popularity by tracking the number of hits. The latest blogging twist is using audio as well. (Check out audblog.com). New technology allows you to update your blog with a phone call. So now you can hear your mundane musings, too.
MORE BLOGS
everywednesday.blogspot.com -- Nova Southeastern University instructor Kathleen Dixon Donnelly writes about her Irish husband's comments on the movie The Magdalene Sisters.
run-ricky-run.com -- Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams weighs in on the recent painful loss to Houston.
knoxscape.blogspot.com -- Boca Raton businessman Knox North covers everything from tech updates to his marriage announcement.
theworldofstuff.com -- The musings of Deerfield Beach teenager Jordon Kalilich track his love of music and first days of high school.
bigfatblog.com -- Weight-reduction blogs are popular on the Net. For another view, this blog posts news articles and comments of people working for fat acceptance.
mbawire.blogspot.com -- This blog offers a detailed account of one man's acceptance into graduate school for business.
pealco.net -- Pedro Alcocer of Miami shares thoughts on what it's like to leave home for the University of Florida.
[This article appeared on the Sun-Sentinel's web site as "Blogs Let Everyone Put Their Innermost Thoughts on the Internet." Article and photograph copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel Co. Reprinted in accordance with the fair use guidelines stated in 17 USC §107.]
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