CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
4.2 F ROM THE S CHOOL TO H OME , FROM THE B EDROOM TO THE D IGITAL R OOM
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Star uses MP4 in his free time. Apart from this, his other media use, like watching TV and surfing the Internet, goes on in his parents’ room. TV programs provide him with entertainment as well as more knowledge. Computer is the medium he uses most. Through live messenger and the blog, he keeps touch with his peers.
Besides, he gets to know more school brothers and sisters, who have graduated and he is less likely to know otherwise. Moreover, online games are an important part of his Internet use. When playing online games, he meets more people from other places.
They chat during the games and form a team to get promoted.
4.2 From the School to Home, from the Bedroom to the Digital Room
Children spend a great deal of time at school besides family life. They have classes and play games at school. What’s more important, they can make friends there.
In the past, children invited classmates to their homes to play. But now many children have to rush to cram schools, language tutoring classes or art classes to study more after school. In the era of Internet, children have a new way to contact each other - the Internet. Although they can’t invite classmates to their home and play games, they can communicate with each other via live messenger or build their own digital rooms in their blogs, where they can invite classmates and friends to talk or share whatever in life.
“Extremely important” is how children describe the important role of blogs in their daily life. Although they go to school and play and talk with their friends every weekday, blogs provide them with more private space, where they can talk about everything and share even more secrets. The blog can be private, so children can
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Comparing with the open space at school, digital rooms can meet the demand of personal emotional communication better.
Blog is super important to me, extremely important, because I can know more on the blog than at school. (Betty, November 17th, 2009)
部落格對我來講超重要，重要到爆，因為在部落格上，我會知道比在學校 更多事情。
One of the functions of the Internet is to offer asynchronous participation.
Because of H1N1, Betty had to stay at home for two weeks’ isolation. During this time, she couldn’t go to school or have classes with her classmates. Thanks to the record of school life shared on her classmates’ blogs, she wasn’t separated from other students even during isolation.
I was isolated at home because of H1N1 for a period of time. While during that time, I knew what they were doing from the pictures on their blogs. (Betty, November 17th, 2009)
之前有一段時間因為 A 型流感在家自主隔離，就可以從部落格的相片裡 知道他們在學校都在幹嘛。
In addition, the blog is also the best place for her to share her recent life. She took photos of herself and uploaded them onto her blog, so that her classmates
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wouldn’t be blind to her recent life because of her absence. Through such interaction, she could also feel the attention and care from her peers, which are very moving, other than sharing and exchanging information.
Then I uploaded my photos and chatted with them. Many people left messages, and I was greatly moved. Some people didn’t bother to write journals, but they responded. A classmate named OOO said to me that she had written a journal and asked me to have a look. In the blog he wondered why I didn’t go to school and something else like that, to which many people responded. I was moved till today. (Betty, November 17th, 2009)
然後可以拍照片，可以跟他們聊天。然後後來看到很多人留言，就很感動，
有的人懶得打文章，就會用回應。然後 OOO 就跟我說她有打一篇，叫我要 去看，我就去看，他上面就寫說我怎麼那麼多天沒有去學校什麼的，然 後有很多人的回應，我就一直感動到今天。
4.2.1 The Blog is a Small Room for a Small Group to Maintain Friendship and Keep Records of Life
On the blog, there are two ways to maintain friendship and keep records of life.
One is through photos in photo albums, and the other is through writing journals on the blog.
In Figure 4.1, Betty wrote journals in memory of nine of her good friends, who went to different schools after graduation. But she believed deeply that although the nine members of their “lollypop group” were separated, they would still cherish their
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friendship. She showed her appreciation to the friendship by quoting an actor’s lines of a hot film - I’m getting along with friends, not outlaws. Besides, she used phrases like “a big family”, “good home to return”, “be loyal to friends”, “appreciate friendship” and “the best class” to emphasize her feelings.
Figure 4.1: Betty’s Journal-Memory of School Life
By playing the calling game, Star invited friends in his small group to paste the questionnaire on their own blogs and answer it after reading his answers, through which he could know his friends’ personal thoughts and confirm their friendships. In Figure 4.2, Q. 31 to Q. 41 are about past love and present love, mentioning whether having the other half or having given the first kiss and so on. Q. 42 to Q. 48 ask about the best friends, the one who know you best and so on. By pasting and answering the questionnaire, Star shared his thoughts, showed himself and boosted participation from his community friends.
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From the interactive calling game, you can see others’ different aspects. People picked out by me had all answered them, and they are my comparatively special friends. (Star, June 25th, 2010)
（動動小手，是一種要大家來參與的，可以看到別人不同的一面，有被我點 名的人都有來寫。我挑的這幾個人都是我比較特別的朋友。）
Figure 4.2: Star’s Journal- Questionnaire
Figure 4.3 is the photo taken after Betty and her friends in her small group cleaned the toilet of the school. The toilet in the photo is the secret garden for her and some of her friends, which others are banned to enter by the teacher. She said this is the “forbidden toilet” claimed by the teacher, and she and her friends are the only
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photo album of her blog, creating some difference from other groups and showing her superiority complex of being allowed to enter the “forbidden place”.
This was taken in the school toilet. The teacher bans students to use it, but we are the only ones who can. Others would envy us, so we took a photo for memory.
The balusters in the toilet are lower, and some boys once climbed up the
balusters for fun. It’s very dangerous, so the teacher doesn’t allow students to use it any more, except the ones who clean it. (Betty, June 22nd, 2010)
這是我們在學校廁所拍的，因為這裡是老師禁止進來的廁所，我們是唯一 可以進來的人，會讓別人很羨慕，所以拍照紀念。因為這一間廁所欄杆較低，
之前有男生在裡面爬欄杆玩，太危險了，後來老師不讓大家進來，只有打掃 的人可以。
Figure 4.3: Betty’s Album Photo — Forbidden Toilet
4.2.2 Digital Room Allows Old Friends to Enter, Visit and Respond, and Moreover,
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the Unknown Who Have the Common Interest can Share Life Experiences and Make New Friends
The blog offers an exclusive digital room to a child with many functions. For example, by the function of “who has come”, Star can see who has visited his blog.
One of the visitors uses the photo of a South Korean star as the head image, who he likes very much, so he went to that person’s blog via the link, finding that they have a lot common with each other. Both of them like the South Korean drama, Boys Over Flowers, and they like the same roles, too. Then he left a message on the person’s blog and made friends with him, after which they shared the news and recent life of their idols on each other’s blog
I clicked “who has come” on the blog of the Wretch, and all the ones who have visited turned up. I saw a person using Kim Hyun Joong’s (an actor having played a role in the South Korean drama, Boys Over Flowers) picture as the head image. I clicked his blog and found all the pictures and all the songs on his blog were Kim Hyun Joong’s. I made friends with him, because I also like Boys Over Flowers. (Star, October 9th, 2009)
我在我無名打開網誌上面「誰來我家」，裡面會有所有來的人，然後就看
到有一個人放「金賢重」（韓版流星花園裡面其中角色之一）的圖片，然後
我點進去，看到他裡面全部都是金賢重的圖片，然後語法、歌全部都是金賢 重的，我就跟他交朋友，因為我也愛看流星花園。
On the website Wretch, I will read others’ journals. This is really fun. When the
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friends about the drama. I was crazy about the drama, and I would respond to these journals, by which I made more friends. (Star, October 9th, 2009)
去無名的時候會去看看，去看看別人家的文章就覺得很有意思，像上次流 行流星花園，然後就去找到網友那邊的有流星花園，就是很迷戀流星花園，
然後我就去那邊回覆文章，然後就交到朋友啦！
After using the blog, Betty’s social network enlarges. At first, she only had friends at school, but through the blog, she made friends with many people she didn’t know before but who scanned her blog by chance. Friends at school can keep touch with her after school through the blog. They read each other’s new pasted journals or share photos about their life. Most of their journals on the blogs are about what happened at school. Although they meet at school every day, by writing and reading these journals, she learns more about what happened at school, and often gets many responses, which makes their friendships better.
By using the blog, I can make more friends, let the unknown know me and make the friendship already built stronger. (Betty, November 17th, 2009)
用部落格之後，可以認識到更多朋友，可以讓不認識的人來認識我，然後 讓已經認識的人變得更好。
Blog is super important to me, extremely important, because I can know more on the blog than at school. (Betty, November 17th, 2009)
部落格對我來講超重要，重要到爆，因為在部落格上，我會知道比在學校
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更多事情。
Figure 4.4 is the table-board of Betty’s photo album. The person on both sides is her favorite singer Huang Meizhen14. Putting her favorite singer’s pictures on the table-board shows her support on her idol, and on the other hand, it attracts the passers-by who also like Huang Meizhen. They will click her album or read the journals about Huang Meizhen she has written on the blog.
Figure 4.4: Betty’s Album Table-board with Huang Mei-zhen
There is an album named “An Unforgettable Day” in Star’s blog album, which
14 Jane Huang (Chinese: 黃美珍) is a Taiwanese singer. In 2007, she finished seventh in the One Million Star Taiwanese singing competitionShe is currently in the band Y2J with band member Yuming Lai. (Retrieved June 20th ,2010 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Huang)
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records the whole course of attending his idol Rainie Yang15’s autograph session (Figure 4.5). Star also posts his picture with a signing poster (Figure 4.6). In the album, Star described the pictures with such words as “Love Rainie most”, “Rainie is the best”, “beautiful song”, and “marvelous” to express his love and appreciation to his idol. The album’s name “An Unforgettable Day” showed his involvement in the activities of supporting his idol.
Figure 4.5: Album of Star Attending Rainie Yang’s Autograph Session
Figure 4.6: Picture of Star with Rainie Yang’s Signing Poster
15 Rainie Yang (Chinese: 楊丞琳) is a Taiwanese singer, actress, and talk show host.
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4.3 Active Spreader from Revealing to Sharing