Why We Blog. Blog assignment 1

 

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.