Girls Are A Different Kind Of Content Creator
Posted by anastasia on 02-21-2008
Back when Pew released their study of who was uploading more video (boys), I wrote this post musing about why this was…I'm not an academic by any stretch, but given today's must-read New York Times article on girls as web content creators, I think I was on the right track. According to the piece, "videos are often less about personal expression and more about impressing others. It's an ideal way for members of a subculture — skateboarders, snowboarders — to demonstrate their athleticism."
What was new for me in this piece was how aggressive girls get when other girls steal their creations, which are directly linked to their identities:
That desire is never so evident as when girls criticize online copycats who essentially steal their Web page backgrounds and graphics by hotlinking (linking to someone else's image so it appears on one's own Web page). Aside from depleting bandwidth, it is the digital equivalent of arriving at a party wearing the same dress as another girl, Professor Palfrey said.
No wonder that girls post aggressive warnings on their sites such as "Do not jock, copy, steal, or redistribute any of my stuff!" or, more to the point: "hotlink and die."
It was nice to see Ypulse 2007 Mashup speaker Martina Butler (Emo Girl Talk) interviewed and photographed for the piece! And I learned about a new teen site — Agirlsworld.com.
Check out Allison's post on this, too, over at Nextgreatthing.com.
P.S. In response to my post the other day about creative communities…Kelly emailed and suggested Koinup.com and Teen Second Life saying: "Many teens that are artists are designing and selling clothes/skins/hair inworld using PhotoShop or gimp to create them." Rebecca suggested Elfwood and Denise pointed out this section of Allykatzz where girls can promote their creations.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
I read this article, too, and found it to be really interesting. I'm working with the Girls Web Editorial Board (GWEB) to create orb28, New Moon's online community for girls ages 13 - 15+, and right now we're in the content-creation / content-gathering stage. And I've seen first-hand that these girls can *create.* A lot of them are also getting more comfortable with video, so I'm hoping girls will be jumping into that arena in greater numbers in the future, too. I love knowing that girls continue to find new ways to express themselves and connect, using the internet to its fullest potential.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:50 am
This sounds very interesting and I can't wait to explore each link.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I've noticed this gender phenom in some of our Shaping Youth teams too; the boys love to share their identities via video cam "X-games"-ish style and the girls love the flip/blip video short form or deviantart, virtual goods and custom avatar creations to declare who they are…
BUT…my own tween daughters' just discovered my article about Animoto.com (in beta) and she's excited about uploading her own clips & photos into a 'prof. trailer' to show the guys the girls' waterskiing/wakeboarding prowess as an open invite for summer fun on the lagoon! (again, identity expression via customized media with turnkey/easy execution)