The Place for Teens
By Jessica N. Bowles-Martinez
I am always interested in seeing what older people have interpreted
as the relevant issues and features in a teen's life. Everyone has
a slightly different take on the subject but there seems to be a few
basic staples deemed necessary for a site on teen culture; fashion
and music. This site covers those topics and quite a few more as it
tries to create a site where teens can let other teens know who they
are and develop a sense of community amongst one another.
One of the best ideas on this site, and the main reason to want to
return is the online journals they have. Over 500 teen girls write
down their daily events, hopes, and frustrations for anyone who takes
the time to read them to see. Included along with the entries is a
brief biographical section for each of the girls to provide some sort
of context for readers to place the entries against. The idea is simple,
the entries are all short, and many are poorly spelled and sound similar
to other entries. Yet, the informality of the writing, the genuinely
excited babble and emoticons over a new CD, and the frustration over
boys or school are all topics that everyone else has probably wrote
about in their journals at some time. I think it would provide a release
by writing this type of information, as well as a sense of unity and
community when one realizes that there are many people in very difficult
and similar situations. The way that the page is arranged means that
this part of the site is not a focal point but a category on a long
list of areas on the site. I think that it might be good to emphasize
this feature more and bring it to the top and perhaps start letting
the people writing the journals insert pictures to highlight and explain
what they are saying.
Many of the articles are written fairly poorly, as though it was a
junior high school reporting on new trends in fashion and automobiles.
Perhaps, this is he case, and if so the page should advertise it and
play up the fact that it is a site for and by teens. But, since it
is never stated, one assumes that it is probably an adult writing
the articles, and the quality of the writing is almost insulting to
the intelligence of the readers. And, perhaps one of the worst crimes
against teenagers is to talk to them as though they are at a lower
level mentally.
The page makes other attempts to unite the teens that frequent the
site but none are quite as effective as the journals. They have a
cars section where they have a car of the day where a teen sends in
a picture of their car and lists the specifications and information
for it. What might be more helpful is providing a picture of the teen
by their car, and perhaps some biographical information. If they have
a journal on the site a link to their journal as well would be helpful,
so that there is some idea of whose car this is. Right now, without
that information I don't feel like there is anything really uniting
the teens by seeing a car that belongs to someone they know nothing
about.
The site also has tries to balance out its sections on entertainment,
music, and fashion with portions dedicated to homework and college.
The site has an "interactive learning network" were teens
can go to get help and find resources to help them get their homework
done. To get help from a personal tutor and use some of the services
you have to have a paid membership of 100 dollars a year which is
probably more then most anyone would be willing to pay for online
help.
This page has some features that really do unite teens but most of
the site is still pointless filler, bringing a boring rehashing of
trite topics covered on other sites in a much better way. If the filler
is removed the journals are elevated in importance, along with other
ways viewers can share about themselves then I think this page could
be extremely effective in creating a shared community amongst its
viewers.