You Wanna Take This Online?

From Time:

What does 13-year-old Taylor Hern ♥? Lots of things: the actor Ewan McGregor, the color pink, the band My Chemical Romance, her boyfriend Alex. You would know all that if you visited her Xanga, a blog–home-page hybrid that is the modern teen’s public and interactive equivalent of a diary. You could even leave a comment on her Xanga or send her an “eProp” if, say, you ♥ Ewan McGregor too.

On April 18, Taylor, who is about to enter eighth grade at Lost Mountain Middle School in Kennesaw, Ga., got an instant message (IM) from her friend Sydney Meyer that said, “OMG [Oh, my God] OMG OMG go to your xanga.” Someone using the screen name lmmsgirlsgot2hell had left Taylor a comment that read, “Go to my Xanga, bitch.” Taylor did–and found a List of Hos. Her name was on it. The list was hurtful, but Taylor says she wasn’t as bothered as other girls. “A bunch of the cheerleading chicks spazzed,” she says. “Me and all my friends thought it was stupid. Who would actually make time in their schedule to do something like that?”

Turns out, many of her peers would. Technology has transformed the lives of teens, including the ways they pick on one another.

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