It's a girl thing

Get this: 35 percent of all online teen girls blog, while only 20 percent of online teen boys do so, according to the latest report from the Pew Internet & American Life project. This comes as no surprise to me; I have two such female creatures in my household and it's something I can observe up close.

I've blocked Myspace.com at the cable router on a couple of occasions when I was concerned about homework focus. The Internet for them is much less about consuming content than it is about interpersonal communications.

Some of their usage might look to a publisher like "personal publishing," but to them it's much more about showing and telling friends, which I interpret as interpersonal communications. Our 15-year-old, Paige, is now up to 14,638 images in her photo gallery. What she is saying is, "Hey guys, here's what we did Saturday."

I've previously pointed out that the use of our successful participative newspaper-affiliated websites, such as BlufftonToday.com, is dominated by females. Gannett has taken the female group communications concept seriously and has launched "mom sites" in many of its newspaper markets.

If you have any lingering notions that the Internet is a place for geeks and guys, get over it.

Comments

Are you a Yalvington from the strande out in Palatake Florida?

All Yelvingtons are related -- but my branch of the family moved from the Carolinas to Mississippi and then Arkansas, while the other major branch moved to northern Florida in the early 1800s. The family name is an American respelling of the British surname Yelverton. Keith Yelverton's Web page has a database of more than 22,000 of us.

I'm from the line of John Yelverton, James Yelverton, Jacob Yelverton, Zadock Yelverton, Asa Yelvington, Mitchell Yelvington, Thomas Miller Yelvington, Charles Alford (Rube) Yelvington, and Ruben L. Yelvington.

Asa Yelvington was my great great grandfather. He was from the Carolinas and moved to Mississippi. What info can you share with me about him and his relatives. What about service to the Confedracy? Where is he buried? Thanks, Billy

I don't know where he is buried. I visited the graves of Thomas Miller Yelvington and most of his children earlier this year (near Hamburg, Arkansas), but I don't think Mitchell's grave was there, nor Asa's. I do know that Asa died in Arkansas after moving up to live with Mitchell. The Bureau of Land Management at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ has a database of land patents issued during the period of national expansion. Asa Yelvington was granted many hundreds of acres of land in Mississippi during that time. You can find digital scans of the certificates by searching the database, and order printed versions.

I'm a Texas Yelvington. All Yelvingtons must truly be related since I, too, am a descendant of Jacob, Zadok, and Asa Yelvington. Asa's son Henry fathered Alvaro Leonard who fathered Henry Blakely who fathered Henry Woods, my dad. I must say from reading some items on your blog you are definitely a Yelvington boy child. Adventure is handed down to males through the genes just like hair color in my branch of the family. My grandfather, Henry Blakely Yelvington, was a journalist. At one time he rode with Pancho Villa to do a story and feed info to Texas law. There's info on him in the archives at the University of Texas' Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, if you want to find out more. I grew up hearing wild stories from my dad about adventures and things he and my uncles had done. I attended college at what was then Southwest Texas State University along with my favorite male Yelvington cousin. Ramsey Yelvington, our dads' cousin, was Playwrite in residence there at the time. He'd invited us out to his place in Wimberly and on the way out my cousin and I began comparing stories we'd heard from our dads. Stories we'd both considered too far fetched to be true. Our afternoon with Ramsey was eye opening. He began telling some of the same stories with the same details that we'd heard. Turns out those far fetched tales were true! A rather tame, but telling, story that was confirmed that day was the story of how our uncle L was not allowed to attend Brackeridge high school in San Antonio because my dad, my cousin's dad, our uncle A, and Ramsey were already in attendance there. Seems Brackenridge high school couldn't possibly handle another Yelvington boy. Cats have 9 lives, thankfully Yelvington men have quite a few more. ....just wondering, is the gene for strong independence handed down to the females in your branch of the family like it is in mine? Glad to have "met" another Yelvington relative!

I've been using openDNS (dot) com as a service to keep my kids off what I think they should and should not view. It's great in that you can block categories etc. I'd like to see a timer feature in it so that perhaps at weekends mysapce activity can be allowed but it's free to use so cant grumble.

My name is Mickie Elvington Brown, my line is John, James, Jacob, Zadock, Asa, Harrison, Luther, William, my dad Ralph, I have done a lot of reseach on the family,they are quite interesting family, if you have a question email me a mickieb1942@aol.com Mickie

I'm the son of Alvareo Leonard Yelvington and grandson of Henry B Yelvington of Texas. I would appreciate any help reasearching Henry's writing. I have one book by him and would like to find more writings by him. thanks Jacob

Steve, Thank you for the pitching the web site! Keith