Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > March > 14 > Entry
Panel: A Brief History of Growing Up Online
Date/Time: 5 p.m. Saturday
Panelists: Anna Genoese (Aleuromancy), Maria Diaz (Writer), Mark Shrayber (Girl Detective, Louise Miller Enterprises), Sarah Wulfeck (National Community Producer, CBS DMG), Gala Darling (iCiNG)
The gist: In the mid 1990s, teen girls (and a few boys) started journaling their lives as a way to connect with teens with similar interests, express themselves and, admittedly, to get attention. The attention wasn’t always good; Anna Genoese almost got kicked out of high school because of her online journal. Mark Shrayber couldn’t go to the prom because of something he said in his journal. Then password-protection became available and suddenly, the bloggers — before blog was a word — they could control who saw their writing.
For some of the panelists, real life now trumps online presence. Others still blog every detail of their lives online. Gala Darling says in the future, people will get a more realistic version of what your life is like by looking back on your life through online journals.
The backlash against oversharing isn’t new, says Sarah Wulfeck. Some people are secretive, and not everyone is a performer.
Genoese says the act of keeping her blog made her braver to go out and meet people. “It got me out of my shell,” she says. “There’s nothing to talk about when you’re lying on your back staring at the ceiling for 6 hours a day…Every single friend I have is someone I met online.”
Quotes: “Oversharers today don’t have a sense of the line between oversharing and putting things up that shouldn’t be on the Internet.” — Anna Genoese
Takeaways: Use password protection judiciously.
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