FanFiction?

This is a post written by my 15 year old daughter. She and her twin sister have been doing creative collaborative writing online for years, and always use characters from existing books or movies, but I didn't know the trend had a name! How did I miss this?

Her opinion below - the state of social media -

People of different ages tend to use the Internet and social media for different reasons. For the older generation it is for business, communication, and negotiations, but the most popular reason among the younger set is entertainment.

MySpace popularized social media among teenagers. It was huge for two years or so until Facebook was introduced, which was both safer and more convenient. MySpace is a dinosaur now, whereas it is hard to find someone--teenager and adult alike--who does not have a Facebook. However, the golden age of Facebook is starting to fade, and Twitter is beginning to take over. Twitter doesn’t have many features though, so for now Facebook is far better for overall communication. Twitter is oriented toward self-expression.

Self-expression is the other popular reason for the use of social media among teens. Although some people post things such as poetry and photography on their Facebook or Myspace pages, most people my age prefer to remain anonymous when it comes to posting outside of Facebook, and so they do it with screen names on sites that are more specialized. Sites such as DeviantArt are popular, and blogging sites such as Livejournal and Xanga (though Xanga is a dinosaur at this point too) are very popular for self-expression, and people can post their artwork and journal entries with options to share it either with the whole world or exclusively with their friends.

Another fad is FanFiction, in which people write stories and scripts using characters from their favorite TV shows, movies, or books. FanFiction is mostly posted on sites such as Livejournal and FanFiction.net.

Different sites become popular every year, and like fashion trends, what is cool one month may be embarrassingly obsolete the next.