Blog Review: Firstthings.com

So. If you were wondering, Family Life Educators also review others' content to make sure that its appropriate for us to use in our classes and as personal resources. Well, this is one of those times that I'm going to tell you, 1) how well this blog will meet your needs as a parent, teen or mentor, 2) how well the blog aligns with current research, 3) how well you can use this blog in your life (basically, "is this blog applicable to transitioning into adulthood?") and 4) if you might like the authors that contribute to the blog.

The authors of firsthings.com post this in their masthead: "First Things is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society." 

I think right off the bat, I was intimidated by the fact that they call themselves a "interreglious, non partisan research and education institute." I mean, religion and partisan are all terms that have heave connotations in our society, but, at the same time, I think this resource is important. As a family life educator, I want you to know that there are multiple avenues to seek advice and direction for transitioning an individual into adulthood. And that could mean that an interreligious (which basically means that they do not specify a denomination, but focus on core issues) and nonpartisan (meaning: they are not part of a political party) education and research institution. All this to say: they are going to be biased towards, possibly, more conservative matters, but the topics they have about adulthood or transitioning to adulthood are interesting. Some article titles they have are: "Delayed adulthood and decade analysis," "Parents: let your teens be adults," and others. So as parent, teen, or mentor: on a scale of 1-10, I think this blog is about a 6 in usability.

The research aspect of the blog is pretty solid. The authors base a lot of their main articles from research or reactions to books they've read--so very much like this blog that you are browsing now. They react to the articles and books they have read, etc. In this portion, I would rate about an 8/10 in research content.

As for the applicability of the blog: its a little spotty. They do address a lot about young-adulthood and some rough-around-the-edges topics about adulthood, however, they do not talk about if these ideas are good necessarily or how you can advise parents, etc. in the matter. Application of this site: 4/10

With that being said, I thought the writing styles of the authors that I read articles from were dry. It seems like they kept their blog posts down to a page (or less) and needed to keep the message as short ast possible but get all the information they wanted across. Which is good, when there is SO much material for individuals to sift through, it is best to keep things short and sweet. However, this also means that they do not have much fluff or add-in's about reality. 1/10 in this area.

In all: the average score for this website would be 4.75/10. Below passing, but I hope you'll at least give the site a chance and let me know what you think! (And to make things easy: here's a link! First Things website) ~~Rebecca M. Jenn