HONG KONG: Promoting suicides, exposing privacy, gang abuse, complaining and scolding are all part of a new type of behavior for countless local youths on the Internet. However, there is a different group of teenagers trying to twist the trend with "positive blogs".

The blogs - which were selected as finalists in a positive blog competition organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) - were posted on the Internet Wednesday for Hong Kong people to vote for as positive blog champions.

Unlike bloggers who have posted photos of food they have eaten at restaurants and launched an online critique of their taste, the positive blog contenders included 16 females and males between the ages of 12 and 30, who used their blogs to encourage others to follow online optimism.

"We see a lot of negative energy on the Internet and we hope that the blogs can release positive energy on the Internet. We want to let other youths see that blogs can be made like that and not just a place to blame and complain about unhappy things," said HKFYG's social worker Phoebe Pang Shuk-han, who launched the project in November 2009.

Pang, in charge of the group's youth counseling center, hopes that with the competition, the sites will become popular blogs and influence local youth to love life and feel more hopeful for the future.

Believed to be the first of its kind, the competition, named "Love Life, Love Now, Love Future", was the idea of Pang and her teammates, and is part of their Community Chest-funded project, Web Positive.

As soon as news spread about the competition - in the form of leaflets distributed at universities and secondary schools, and as advertisements in youth magazines and local blogs - the number of blogger applications increased dramatically.

More than 200 bloggers have applied. Last month, Pang and her team selected 16 finalists and uploaded them onto the group's website www.u21.hk.

There are no rigid criteria for the first round selection, says Pang, as she cites those who use their web logs as vehicles to examine life, express hope and are creative in how they present their thoughts - all of which are considered by the Web Positive team.

Until February 7, 2010, the public can vote for the best five blogs, with each voter allowed to give a maximum of five votes. The group's executives, a clinical psychologist and a newspaper illustrator will also be involved in the selection process.

According to Pang, her organization plans to compile the winning blogs in a book.

"Many bloggers just plainly record their daily lives in their blog. Their voices are negative and they don't know how to treasure and enjoy life," she says. "We want other young people to see that blogs can be a reflection of life, not just an outlet to place photographs of dishes and comment whether they are good or not," Pang explains.

Such positive-oriented blogs are not the most popular sites, but Pang says that they stand out from others because they show love for life. One female blogger used photographs to show the "lovely side of life", and another used his self-drawn cartoons and words to express that "life is full of hope and joy". "Though my words may be a little bitter, if you taste them, you will see that I am actually making joy out of pain. Be positive in life," said a female blogger who used her blog to record her inner feelings and reactions to events.

Pang says that the accomplishments of bloggers cannot be described as contributions to Hong Kong, but they will help change the negative local Internet culture among young people. As mentioned earlier, the group's executives, a clinical psychologist, a newspaper illustrator and the public will cast votes to select the final winners.

(HK Edition 01/08/2010 page1)