Mr Scott spoke to a small group at the Mosgiel Library this week about a book he wrote, Dear Dot: I Must Tell You . . ., based on archives of letters written to the Otago Witness' Dot's Little Folk column from 1886 to 1932.
What started as a column filled with letters from young children sharing their views on the world, transformed into "a blog site for teenage children".
Teenagers became engaged with the column and it took on a life of its own, with contributors corresponding with each other over debates through it.
From "hijinks" at school and not wanting to leave childhood behind, to smoking, alcohol and the war, thoughts and feelings were shared publicly in the newspaper.
Mr Scott did not believe it differed "at all" from modern teenagers.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same. The only difference is the medium in which these children are expressing themselves.
"In 1900, you only had the written word . . . in 2000, you have facebook and Twitter . . . but the issues they are facing are the same . . . I think the whole teenage angst thing is the same no matter what generation you talk about," he said.
He believed it "would be interesting" to carry out a comparative study of what was being discussed through social networking sites and blogs.
