Blog onto xanga.com for outsider inside look
By Noelle Chun
Noelle Chun is a senior at Punahou School.
| • | Field guide to the blogger
Xanga (ZANG-uh): Noun. A personal web log. A venting device. Something that might get you in trouble with Mom or Dad. Verb. To update one's Xanga page. Xangan. Noun. One who uses Xanga. In Xanga, a mighty pleasure dome Here's are few quick facts that may or may not surprise you about teens in Hawai'i today. We love the Internet and blogging, or online diaries. The latest rage is Xanga, a site that offers free online journals that can be personal in content, but public to those who have the correct url. We love to share our thoughts, maybe not with our parents, but at least with each other. We're Xangans. Of the 25 teens I contacted to ask if they knew what Xanga was, nine had their own web logs and 15 knew of of the site. According to Xanga CEO John Hiler, Hawai'i is the company's fifth-largest participator in blogrings, with a collective membership of 3,213 web logs. Some schools in Hawai'i sport large memberships, such as the Mililani High School Blogring, with 637 members. |
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The universal initial excuse is, "I just made one to comment on everybody else's page."
Then the updates start.
Maybe one now, another a few days later.
Before you know it, you're updating every day, constantly hitting your browser's refresh button to check up on it.
"It" is xanga.com, one of the most popular online journal sites here in Hawai'i. Xanga provides users a free site to create an online journal.
Journals — or "blogs" as we call them — are personal in content, but public to all those who know the writer's username.
The online community has emerged as a strong symbol of my fiery new generation.
It provides an outlet for individuality while providing a space to relate to other people.
If Xanga were a book, each site would be a character with differences to appreciate. And, as in much of literature, it reminds that what binds us all together is the inescapable fact that all of us have shortcomings — and we all share similar woes.
I got sucked in with the intention of only commenting on my friends' pages. It didn't take long before I realized I was hooked, frequently going on updating bonanzas.
Xanga is where I can find friends with whom to celebrate, mourn, complain, and laugh.
And I'm not alone.
"It's a connection between everyone at my school," said junior Olivia Dequiroz of Kapolei High School.
University of Southern California student Ryan Chun expands it beyond his campus. "It's hard to keep in contact with everyone," he said. "You want to update loved ones and friends with what you've been up to, so Xanga is an effective way to let them all know what's up."
While Xanga has granted many teenagers freedom of expression, it has also met cold consequences. Brianne Jarnesky encountered a sticky situation when a friend's parents read their daughter's Xanga site.
"I took my friend out one night, and her parents misinterpreted the story" on the Xanga blog, the 'Aiea High School junior said. "We dared people to hug a tree, and I guess her parents misinterpreted that she was hugging the guys. So they thought I was a bad influence on her and wouldn't allow me to hang out with her anymore."
Despite the trouble, perhaps it's the danger of making something public that also attracts. It's the idea that what people say is important, as is the writer behind it.
As a gleaming location on the online superhighway, what we write matters, even if the significance is weighed in eProps and comments. It's a glance at someone inside and out, without the name and assumptions normally attached to image.
And who wouldn't want that?
On the web:
The Advertiser invites teens to speak out about issues, trends, pressures and perceptions they deal with each day. If you would like to submit an article or suggest a topic, e-mail Island life assistant editor Dave Dondoneau at ddondoneau@honoluluadvertiser.com.
