The online and offline symbol of a heart March 6, 2008
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Language, Offline, Online, Youth Culture.7 comments
As some of you might know, I have started taking pictures of “offline walls” (aka graffiti). Especially, when I am out giving talks all over Denmark and have a lot of waiting time in public spaces such as train or bus stations.
As I have mentioned before, it seems that the online way of communicating has affected the offline. Symbols that most often belong to Arto profiles or Facebook walls can now be found on actual, physical walls.
Yesterday I was in Assens and had some time to kill in the local bus station waiting room. Here, I found a message saying “I love you” along with two drawings that capture both the online (<3) and the offline symbol of a heart: (the highlights and the blurring of the last name have been made by me):
I have many similar examples of online symbols or references being used in the physical public space. I find this interesting in relation to my PhD project, as it says something about how the boundaries of online and offline communication and relationships are blurred – and how the virtual space is represented IRL and vice versa.
On this specific wall I also found references to Arto profiles. It’s all about being OnLife 🙂 ❤
Girls spend more time online than boys November 9, 2007
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Children, Internet, Online.6 comments
Danish girls between the age of 10 and 14 years old are considered to be “heavy users” when it comes to time consumption on the internet. New figures from The Association of Danish Internet Media (FDIM) show that girls within this age group spend in average 11 hours a month on Danish sites (which are part of the official measurement of internet traffic) whereas boys between 10 and 14 years old “only” spend in average seven hours.
Among the most popular sites for both sexes are Arto, MSN and DR (meaning that those are the sites with the biggest “reach” within the target group of 10-14-year-old’s).
The 10-14 year old girls are most heavily represented on:
whereas the 10-14 year old boys are most heavily represented on:
compared to their representation on the internet in general.
The figures also show that the average female Arto user between 10-14 spend slightly more that 13 hours a month on the site, whereas the average male user between 10-14 spend a little under 10 hours a month on Arto.
Read the article from FDIM here and see the figures and measurements here.
(NOTE: These figures are solely based on internet traffic in July 2007, they only measure traffic on Danish sites (and not the international ones that Danish children are using) and only traffic on the sites which are members of FDIM).
Break up online April 13, 2007
Posted by Malene Charlotte Larsen in Internet, Online, Relationship, Youth Culture.4 comments
A new Danish website, “Speak4You.dk“, offers teenagers to help them break up with their boyfriends or girlfriends. The youngsters “only” have to pay 125 Danish kroner in order to have the website send out a letter with the gloomy message. In an article in Politiken the creator explains that many young people have a hard time saying things as the are and using the website would be a better alternative to break up with someone through a sms message.
The website also offers to send out letters with apologies, secrets or love letters, but the creator predicts that the “break-up-service” will be the most popular… With 125 DKR a letter, I doubt it.
Read the article (in Danish) here.
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