10% of Us
This article in this morning's New York Times, based on research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, claims that one in ten Internet-using Americans have a blog.
That seems like waaaaaaaaaay too many blogs, people. No wonder no one's commenting on mine. You're all reading 100 other blogs, aren't you? Then again, the fact that there are so many blogs doesn't necessarily mean that an equivalent number of people are reading them.
Some days I think blogging is the biggest self-important waste of time I've ever encountered; some days I find it entertaining enough to ignore the other days.
Still, I have mixed emotions about identifying myself with 10% of the country. Does that 10% also watch reality television and eat Hot Pockets? Because I'm not like them. Do they edge their lawns and order frapuccinos? Because I'm not like them either. Do they listen to NPR and walk their dogs every morning? Because I might be like them.
That seems like waaaaaaaaaay too many blogs, people. No wonder no one's commenting on mine. You're all reading 100 other blogs, aren't you? Then again, the fact that there are so many blogs doesn't necessarily mean that an equivalent number of people are reading them.
Some days I think blogging is the biggest self-important waste of time I've ever encountered; some days I find it entertaining enough to ignore the other days.
Still, I have mixed emotions about identifying myself with 10% of the country. Does that 10% also watch reality television and eat Hot Pockets? Because I'm not like them. Do they edge their lawns and order frapuccinos? Because I'm not like them either. Do they listen to NPR and walk their dogs every morning? Because I might be like them.
Labels: metablog
posted by SJB at 9:39 AM
9 Comments:
Wow. 10 percent? I'm curious if that many people have active blogs. I mean, some people have like 12 blogs lying around that literally haven't been attended to in years. Also, that study probably counts all sorts of social networking pages as "blogs."
Hmm, I wonder if that's true about the social networking blogs. So then does Twitter count? But does anyone have a Twitter account without a blog? One sort of implies the other, no?
Twitter and Pownce are microblogs... so I would count those. And they probably count general pages on Facebook, MySpace and Frienster too. But obviously not all social media, since FlickR, YouTube and LinkedIn wouldn't qualify.
Anyway, my point is that the 10 percent figure doesn't necessarily mean than 10 percent of the people have an SJBlog-like blog. And for what it's worth, I wish they did — I love this blog!
Awww, that's very kind. Maybe I'll keep it going for you, dl004d.
And us too?
And me, too?
OK, my adoring fans, I will!
I bet that the dog-walker and NPR listener blog is "friends" on the myspace page of the french press user and scrambled egg whites with salsa Morning Edition blog, which would be my blog's recurring themes if I had the strength of constitution to ever turn on my home computer.
If that same coffee-drinking, egg-white-eating Morning Edition listener had the strength of constitution to log in to her myspace page more than once every 18 months (pot calling the kettle black -- ed.), you're right, we might be able to find out who her cyber-friends are.
Sadly, we'll never know. But on the upshot, one of these days I'll blog about my latest creation: "Spacebook." Festivus for the restuvus!
For now, it remains safely hidden in the comments.
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