Study: Girls Dominate Boys in Creating Web Content
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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 1/8/2008 2:00:00 PM
When it comes to blogging, posting photos online, or creating Web content in general, girls seem to be taking the lead, says a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Overall, online content creation by teens continues to grow, with 64 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 engaging in some form of Web-created content, up from 57 percent in 2004, according to the report.
But girls are overshadowing boys in this area, with some 35 percent of all teen girls reporting that they blog, compared with 20 percent of boys. About 54 percent of "wired" girls also say they post photos online, compared with only 40 percent of boys, says the report Teens and Social Media.
There is one area where boys seem to dominate—uploading video content to sites such as YouTube. Teenage boys (19 percent) are nearly twice as likely as girls (10 percent) to have posted a video online where someone else could see it.
The survey finds that content creation isn’t just about sharing creativity—it is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content. Nearly half (47 percent) of online teens have posted photos where others can see them, and 89 percent of those teens who post photos say that people comment on the images at least "some of the time." Teens who post videos report a similar large incidence of feedback, with nearly 72 percent of video-posters receiving comments on their videos.
"For teens, the beauty of the Internet, particularly a social networking Web site, is that content can be created and easily shared among a network of friends," says Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist and one of the authors of the report. "Even more compelling is that people in those social networks can easily comment and give feedback on shared content."
The good news is that many teens say they limit access to content they share and don’t just plaster it on the Web for anyone to view.
About 28 percent of teens—most of whom are older girls—represent a subset referred to as “super-communicators.” They engage in a “host of technology options” when dealing with family and friends, that range from cell phones, texting, and social network sites to instant messaging and email, the study says.
Meanwhile, texting, instant messaging, and social networking are taking the place of email as important forms of communication. Only 14 percent of all teens report sending email to their friends every day, making it the least popular form of daily social communication that was surveyed.
The report is based on a national phone survey of 935 youth.
