Weblog: A Window into Adolescent’s Soul

Project Period: 1/2007 – 12/2009
Investor: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Project Type / Programme: The research grant projects for juniors
Field: Psychology (Social sciences)
Keywords: adolescent, Internet, blog, identity

Weblogs (blogs) are web pages containing entries written in the chronological sequence, which are typically publicly accessible diaries on the Internet. The subject matter of the submitted research is thRe Czech adolescents’ personal weblogs which we perceive as a unique opportunity to study adolescents’ life. We ask who writes the weblogs, how adolescents deal with their developmental tasks in blogs, what motivates them to write it, what their daily problems or joys are etc. We also intend to identify the differences in which Czech and American adolescents express themselves on their weblogs, which provides the research with an international dimension. Another research objective is methodological: we plan to verify the sample data collected on the Internet and to develop tools for verifying data in the Internet questionnaire. Three independent methods are used in order to satisfy the research goals: content analysis, qualitative interviews and a web survey.