Happy Easter!

            Sadly there are people out there who believe that young children and adolescents don’t have much insight or much to contribute to matters because of their age and lack of life experience. I believe this can be an opinion of pure ignorance at times because it seems to me that children and young people can have better insight into things than adults. They are able to absorb more with an open mind and therefore, they are able to give appropriate feed back. In the chapter appropriately entitled “We Wanted Other People to Learn from Us: Girls Blogging in South Africa in the Age of AIDS” we learn about young girls that are plagued with many issues in their young lives and are able to find some comfort, release, advice, and confidence through the use of blogging. They were taught how to use blogs and how to occupy a digital space in a way to be beneficial to their lives and their community. Throughout the chapter we see constant references about how young girls can state their opinion and post questions or comments on the blogs that they cannot communicate in a one on one setting. In an interview with one of the young girls she was asked about her communication on the blog. The interviewer said, “ …Some people said during this project it was easier to talk about the issues of HIV on the blog. Was that the case for you? It’s easier to talk about HIV on the blog than to talk about it outside the blog?” and the young girl replied, “Yes. I think many communities still don’t understand HIV and still don’t understand that we should talk about HIV and AIDS so when you talk about it on a blog, nobody sees you.” This is a profound statement for me because a young girl feels like she is making a different by drawing attention to a much-needed issue. These blogs help give girls a voice.  In addition it gives young girls hope that they can help their community and contribute to making it a better place.  Students gathered in a focus group and stated “they felt as though their words would have an impact on a greater audience.” (P 161). It is amazing to me that a technological community can have such an impact and help make a difference in the world.