Internet News

Blogging rates fall for US teens

Younger internet users in America are turning away from blogging, according to a new study.

The research, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, found that the number of 12 to 17-year-olds who maintained a blog had halved since 2006, falling from 28 to 14 per cent.

It is thought the trend is a result of the increase in popularity of micro-blogging sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The report discovered 73 per cent of American teenagers were members of social networking sites. A similar study in November 2006 found 55 per cent of young people were members of social websites.

Amanda Lenhart, lead author of the study said that the fall of teen blogging was initially surprising.

”The decline in blogging was really surprising for us until we stepped back and thought about some of the changes that were happening in social networking,” she said.

“Teens have been told that putting your personal information out there publicly is a very bad idea - that it's not safe, that people will come and harm you and your reputation,” Lenhart added.

Online behaviour studied

The report, which studied the online behaviour of 800 individuals, also found more teenagers were using their mobile phones to access the internet. It was revealed that 93 per cent of teens aged 18-29 regularly access online information via their mobile phones.

“Teens and adults no longer access the internet solely from a computer or laptop but now go online via portable devices such as mobile phones or game consoles as mobile access to the internet becomes more and more important,” reported the Guardian newspaper columnist Mercedes Bunz