Personal Blogging in Social Network as Coping Strategy of Difficult Experiences for Youth: the Case of Teenagers Support Community in VK

Over the past ten years, social networks have been developing at a high speed, starting with the basic need for fast communication between people, now the possibilities of social networks cover almost all areas of social life. In most cases, such modification became possible due to the fact that social networks became a platform that has the ability for many online communities to cover various topics and have different goals. Online support communities are a contemporary tool to cope with difficult experiences since more and more people prefer to express their problems on the Internet. Thus, online peer-to-peer support is a new form of social interaction of people which contributes to the restoration of self-esteem, mental and physical well-being. The corresponding connection is possible due to the fact that an individual identifies himself as part of a social group, which subsequently helps to increase his/her self-esteem and mental well-being. This paper focuses on personal blogging practices in online teenage communities. Six key problematic topics that teenagers write about were identified based on the qualitative and quantitative content analysis, as well as 10 in-depth interviews with teenagers. Moreover, such analysis allowed identifying coping strategies that teenagers use in difficult situations. The analysis made it possible to determine the practice of blogging in teenage online communities, as well as the practice of participating in such communities, as a coping strategy of difficult experiences for youth.