The purpose of the reading “Why We Blog” was to explore the
world of blogging and examine the various reasons why people choose to blog.
The people conducting the research conducted interviews with bloggers over the
phone, in person and used audiotapes to determine names and topics of blogs. In
addition they investigated many different peoples blogs, and used those blogs
to discover other bloggers. Throughout conducting all of this research they
discovered there were many differing topics in the small area they were
investigating near Stanford University. They also found depending on the type
of person the blogger either had a lot to say or fumbled with what to say. They
discovered many individuals had a code of ethics they went by when writing
their blogs. This reading then goes on
to talk about people’s motivations of blogging such as, sharing ones life,
stressing opinions, sharing emotions, relieving stress, community awareness,
amusement and commentary. They found that many of these bloggers post to their
blog one or more times a daily. They then begin to talk about a blog verses
various other electronic media support communities like, listservs, chats,
group websites, multi-user dimensions, and MUD objective-oriented technologies.
Several of these did not have access to photos and were less interactive than
blogs. They said that listservs had a higher level of interactivity than blogs
did. They said because bloggers are aware of their viewers that make them more
aware of what they say. One man said he was able to say things on his blog that
he may not be able to on more immediate social network sites. They say bloggers
feel more protected “hiding” behind their screen. I believe this to be because
the vast majority who view a blog are interested in the topic of discussion.
