Blogging is a way for most people to talk about themselves, their personal experiences, and keep in touch with friends, with little regard for how many — or few — readers they get. In fact, about half of bloggers say that their readers are people they personally know. Only a small proportion talk about politics, media, government, technology, entertainment, sports or other issues.
A July national poll conducted among American bloggers 18 years and older by the Pew Internet and American Life Project Report notes that “The Internet has empowered a new class of commentators eager to share personal...views.” There are now about 12 million people who routinely put their ideas into cyberspace, about 8% of adult Internet users. There are 57 million adult readers of blogs or 39% of the online population.
For the all the talk about how powerful blogging has become, another way to look at the numbers is that 92% of people don’t blog and 61% never even bother to look at a blog. “To date,” the Pew Report says, “much of the public and press attention to bloggers has focused on the small number of high-traffic, A-list bloggers....The survey found a different kind of story about the power of the internet to encourage creativity and community among all kinds of internet users.”
The reasons people blog?
- 77% have shared something online that they’ve created themselves—artwork, photos, stories, videos, etc.
- 76% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others.
- 64% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or skills with others.
- 52% say they blog mostly for themselves, not their audience.
- When asked to choose one main subject, 37% of bloggers say that the primary topic of their blog is "my life and experiences."
- 11% of bloggers focus on politics and government.
- 7% on entertainment.
- 6% on sports.
- 5% on general news and current events.
- 5% on business.
- 4% on technology.
- 2% on religion, spirituality or faith.
- Additional smaller groups focus on a specific hobby, a health problem or illness, or other topics.
Article comments
1 - Jewels
Me? About me? Not really. About my interests? That's another matter. Plus, do I want anyone knowing my real life? No.
2 - Mark Schannon
The fact that you're here, Jewels, says you're not in the majority. That's the interesting thing about the survey results. For most people, we never reach them.
3 - kanrei
I agree Jewels. It is about my interests and ideas, but not about me so much. If it were, I would use my real name and not "Kanrei".
I fall between these groups:
11% of bloggers focus on politics and government.
7% on entertainment.
Rarely do I blog about anything in my personal life.
4 - Ray Ellis
You may think you're not writing about yourself, but every opinion you express unpeels another mask you thought concealed you. And that's a good thing, if for no other reason than it opens a line of communication.
5 - Janet
My blogs would be awfully boring if they were about me directly. They are about what I want to say and what I'm interested in, so sure, I'm in there quite a bit, but as a secondary player. I don't want people's eyes to glaze over so I try to make it worth their while visiting. Seeing as I'm not a celebrity, nobody cares about the little details of my health and life, so I'm not going to talk about them except if they can contribute to the subject at hand, which isn't often.
6 - Mark Schannon
Janet & Ray, I agree with both of you. But that's the cool thing about the technology is that it allows you to do whatever you want.
Today, I cut my cuticles, tomorrow I'm going to the dentist. What fun.
To some people, that's really all they want, and that's cool.
Remember, if you look around in all directions and you're not confused, your eyes are closed.
In Decaf Veritas
7 - Avalon
How can you say "Oh, it's not about me - it's about my thoughts and interests". Ummm...your thoughts and interests are YOU. Trust me, it's all about you.
8 - Lisa McKay
I agree with Avalon here. The fact that we have opinions, be they about politics, movies, books, or what have you, and we think that others might be interested in reading them, makes it about us. What we need to do is remove the negative connotation about that. Pretty much everything we do in life is all about us.
9 - Mark Schannon
I think people are reading too much into the article. I was reporting what people say about themselves--their own motivations. There weren't any judgments made or negative connotations.
It just turns out that the majority of people over 18 blog for very personal, private reasons and aren't interested in a wide readership. That's perfectly acceptable.
In Decaf Veritas
10 - Victor Plenty
We could say it all depends on what the meaning of "me" is.
11 - Mark Schannon
Ah, that's simple. It's all about "ME", i.e. the guy writing this. The world revolves around me. I am the center of the universe. Everything that happens in the universe has some connection to me.
And I take my meds regularly.
In Medication Veritas
12 - Matthew T. Sussman
Much of the blogging is personal and attracts about 2 hits a day, because there are usually just 2 people in the world who think green text on purple background actually looks good.
[/myspace rant]
13 - John Guilfoil
I think that most blogs like the many, many that started out on sites like livejournal and such are just that, journals. Good article Mark