In the end, the survey suggests, they have to.
"Today's teens are breaking down the traditional barriers of the mass media age that had producers of media on one side of the fence and consumers on the other," Rainie said.
And in that respect, he said, teenagers are the agents who will challenge every maker, manager and distributor of content.
Whether bloggers like Brendan and Melissa consider themselves at the vanguard of change, however, is an open question. To many of them, they are just tinkering with the toys that the digital revolution has put before them.
"I taught myself how to use the Internet," Melissa said of her Web site and her photo slide shows, "so basically it was just a step-by-step process that clicked into my head. I just read directions and that's how I set it up. Pretty simple."
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