This survey (pdf link) from the Pew Internet and American Life Project sheds some light on and complicates the stereotype of that strange creature, the American Blogger (and a bit on the related American Blog Reader). The data was collected between 2005 and 2006, which, in Internet terms, is kind of like asking Gutenberg about the market for paperbacks, but we take what we can get. Here’s a few of the statistics seen from where Mind on Fire and I fit in (I’ll let Miko answer for herself):
- Some 12 million adult American Internet users (that’s 8%) keep a blog.
- The largest number (37%) treat their blog as a personal journal. The subject with the largest number of topical bloggers is politics (11%) with entertainment, sports, business, and tech after that. Mind on Fire fits in the “religion, spirituality and faith” topic, which claims only 2% of blogs.
- One interesting fact was that bloggers are less likely to be white than Internet users in general. Since I’m mixed race (I generally do not privilege either my Asian or White halves over the other if I can help it), I fall into the 10% of bloggers who claim the “Other” category.
- There is statistical parity between female and male bloggers.
- The huge demographic indicator for bloggers is age. 54% are under 30. I fit in that third between 30 and 50.
- About half blog under a pseudonym. I fit in the 46% who blog under their real name (though I wonder how many of those publish their full name).
- 59% spend 1-2 hrs a week on their blogs. 1 in 10 spend ten or more hours on their blog each week. I spend about that much time on posting, a little more if I include responding to comments, and a lot more if I’m redesigning or developing (which I do once every year or two).
- This was an interesting result to me: only 32% blog for an audience. This seems counterintuitive considering the medium. Maybe most bloggers are aware that there is a potential audience, but just don’t have them in mind when they write? I fit squarely in that 32% statistic.
- Of those who blog, only a third consider what they do as journalism (but over half often fact check and link to original sources). I’m hesitant to apply the journalistic label, but I definitely aspire to it.
- Bloggers write for a variety of reasons (not a comprehensive list): 52% to express themselves creatively (which I do), 37% to keep in touch with family (not a reason why I blog), 27% to influence how others think (I think this fits, but I also want to provide a forum for people to influence each other), 16% to network or to meet new people (a big reason for me, even if I never meet you all face to face), and 7% to make money (BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!).
- 70% update when the muse strikes them, and 22% on schedule. I’ve gradually switched to a schedule (i.e. every day) in the past couple of months.
- I’m proud to be one of the 19% who have blogged for four or more years (five years and counting!). It’s easy to be an old-timer in Internet Land.
Other than its immediate obsolescence on release, my main beef with the survey is that it doesn’t include teens, who represent a huge blogging demographic. What I do like about it is that is shows the diversity of blog types and uses. They range from replacements for family newsletters to teen message boards to personal journals to news sources to hubs for political organization. I know that blogs are generally derided, but I’m excited that so many people are taking advantage of the medium. Blogging is not going away, will mutate as new technologies become available and user-friendly, and together with other media are in the process of revolutionizing how people communicate, network, and disseminate information. These may be part of why teens and minorities are so strongly represented in the blogosphere.
Reading the study provided an opportunity to reflect on the history and the future of this blog. It’s transformed from a intermittently updated, personal journal to a multi-author topical blog. It’s gone from being relatively isolated to becoming one locus in a network of blogs, social groups and personal relationships. I’m taking my role as a blogger more seriously, and am making an effort to improve the quality of my posts and in the information I provide. I think of this as part of a personal outreach ministry, and try to think of how I can provide unique, quality, topical content in a timely manner without losing any of the sincerity and reflexiveness that MoF what it is.
Finally, I’ve started thinking of MoF as something bigger than myself, which is one of the main reasons I invited Miko to be a co-author. She has that mix of skeptical integrity and spiritual concern that characterizes MoF. Plus she balances me out by having a stronger feminist focus (plus, she’s a woman, and a feminist blog is improved by the addition of female voices) and by not going on about Mormonism all the time.
I’m interested in feedback from you: if you’ve followed Mind on Fire for awhile, how has it changed from your perspective, for better or for worse? Are there other blogs that fit in the same space and fulfill the same needs for you as this one? If not, what makes this different? What keeps you coming back? (I’d say besides the fact that you’re my mom, but I don’t even think my mom reads this)
If you’re a blogger, I’m curious to see your reflections on the survey. Where do you fit in? What motivates you to blog?
9 responses so far ↓
1 nee // Feb 18, 2007 at 11:10 am
Me: Female. My blog is mostly a personal journal. I’m white. Speckled, really. Lots of freckles from one of my mother’s German lines. My 4th anniversary as a blogger is this month. I’m a transient blogger. I’ve had different addresses. I usually blog with my first name, a pseudonym, or nickname. As far as an audience goes, I have a blog to connect with other people but as far as content, mostly it’s to keep my close buds (IRL or online) in the loop on what’s going on and it’s cathartic for me.
I started blogging because a friend started and when I read all the blogs of the people who they linked to, I thought they were a bunch of idiots and there needed to be some sanity “out there”. How superiorly smug was that? I’m glad glad I’ve gotten over myself since then. Sheesh.
I do think blogging is a bit self indulgent and that’s not neccesarily a bad thing. Better to blather online where people can opt out than to captive friend on the phone or in person who may or may not give a $h1t.
I try to site sources and be clear when I’m stating my opinion. I have no schedule. I blog less than when I first started 4 years go. I could go a week with no new posts and a day with 3. I try to get at least a couple or more posts up per week.
2 Johnny // Feb 18, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Hi, my name is Johnny and I am a blogger.
-insert- Hi Johnny!
I am 27 years old, white, male, and spend about 1-2 hours a week on my blog and about 3-5 hours a week on others.
I started blogging because I wanted to have some sort of liberal voice in my conservative native religion (mormonism, as if y’all didn’t know that already).
Interestingly enough blogging was one of the influences that moved me from being a liberal mormon to my current post-mormon status. There were two major influences, (i) I didn’t feel like most mormon blogs were really honest about the topics they wrote about, and (ii) as I was honest with myself and the implications I found from mormonism I finally had to seek something else.
Now, my blog consists mostly of my contemplations in the philosophy of religion (I think that falls under the less than 2% category). I blog pretty much to keep myself honest. It’s hard to be inconsistent when there are smart folks like you checkin’ in on me.
3 Bonny // Feb 18, 2007 at 10:08 pm
I’m a 23 year old female blogger and started blogging as a means to letting my friends at college know how things were going when I went to study in D.C. for the semester. My blog is pretty much a journal, which I find funny because I keep a pretty detailed personal journal on paper. I am always kind of torn on what to write down where and sometimes I fear I reveal a little bit too much on my blog, but I think this tends to bother others (my mother, who by the way, does read my blog) more than myself.
I think that I blog as a sort of release and sorting out of all my feelings in a public forum in which people are able to respond to me if they feel the need. Sometimes it feels good to get the feedback of others and other times no feedback is necessary. It just feels good to be heard sometimes. Lately I have been trying to get a little bit deeper with my posts, but I struggle with this sometimes because I feel like I lack the time to compose things that are as coherent and put together as I would like them to be.
I like MoF because I feel like it keeps me on my toes in some sort of way. I graduated with my B.A. two years ago and am working in a field that doesn’t do much for me in terms of intellectual stimulation. I feel like MoF is something that allows me to consider things that I wouldn’t necessarily consider in my everyday life. I feel like it is an inspiration and a motivation in that way. It has helps me to think about my personal beliefs and viewpoints and allows me to relate to people that think both similarly and differently from myself. I am thankful for a blog and a community that is as stimulating and inspirational as this one. I feel like I am still sort of new to it, but it has become something that I very much look forward to everyday.
4 Elaine Frei // Feb 18, 2007 at 10:42 pm
I’ll blog about almost anything, although my current blog started out as specifically for looking at belief systems and how they affect my culture and other cultures. This morning (Sunday), for example, we covered ground from science to pseudoscience to politics and religious bigotry to Ms. Britney’s latest escapade.
I’ve maintained my current blog for just over two years now, but there have been huge gaps when I didn’t post at all. Sometimes that is sheer laziness, and sometimes I’m just too busy to notice that a couple of weeks or a month have passed without posting to my blog at all. Sometimes, because I write regularly in other venues, I just don’t want to write anything else at the end of the day. On the other hand, I’ve posted to my blog three times in the past week. Basically, I blog when I think I have something to say.
I post expecting that what I write will be read by someone. Are my posts self-indulgent? Probably; after all, I write about what I’m interested in, or what makes me angry or excited or just frustrated. I don’t specifically post in order to influence how others think, but I’d like to believe that what I write makes people think, at least occasionally, if that makes any sense. In other words, I write from a specific point of view most of the time, and I would hope that I make my points well and persuasively, but it isn’t going to hurt my feelings if people who read my blog don’t come around to my way of thinking. As long as what I write gets them to think about the issues, I’ve done my job.
Do I consider my blogging to be journalism? Hmmm. I don’t think I ever really thought about it one way or another. Probably not. I look at what I do in my blog as more akin to writing a column rather than as any sort of reporting.
As for stats…I’m a woman, just past 50 (but often accused of being 50ish/going on about 25), and of northern European ancestry.
5 John // Feb 19, 2007 at 12:04 am
Hi Johnny! (and nee and Bonny and Elaine!)
I really appreciate this comparison between bloggers. I think that even as a blogger I can get kind of myopic and isolated, so it’s good to hear the different reasons for why you all blog.
I’m glad that nee and Elaine mentioned self-indulgence. Sometimes I fool myself into thinking I escaped this, but I know better. But like both of you, there is that belief that maybe I have something good enough to share that will stimulate some gray matter.
Johnny said:
I blog pretty much to keep myself honest.
Amen, brother. This was one of my primary reasons for blogging for the two or three years that I worked my way out of the Church.
Bonny, I’m grateful that you read and contribute here. Jana and I have been impressed with the insight and depth of your recent posts (I added Jesus Land to my must reads after your reading your commentary).
6 C. L. Hanson // Feb 19, 2007 at 5:51 am
I fit some of the same categories as you but not all:
* I don’t consider my blog a journal, although it’s not clear what it is (if it’s something other than a blog…) My blog is sort of topical (Mormonism/ex-Mormonism/atheism) especially in that that’s the community of bloggers I run with, but I cover a bunch of other topics as well (literature, parenting, feminism, sexuality, politics, life in France, etc.).
* White.
* I blog under my real name, but the blog with my real name isn’t my primary blog. C. L. Hanson is a pseudonym.
* I can’t even tell you how many hours a week I spend on blogging. Too embarrassing…
* I definitely blog for an audience. I blog to make a connection with people, so I try to come up with topics that I think other people will find interesting.
* I generally fact-check and link to original sources (or if I’m not sure of the accuracy of something I’m posting, I say so). Why not? With google right there, there’s no sense posting something that’s wrong if you can avoid it. I don’t consider my blog to be journalism, though — it’s more like “random musings.”
* I blog for all of those reasons, except the money one. I keep thinking this might actually lead to something paying, but I don’t have any concrete plans in that direction.
* I blog on a schedule.
* I’ve only been blogging for about a year and a half, but before that I spent a lot of time on forums.
7 pilgrimgirl // Feb 19, 2007 at 3:00 pm
I’ve written a bit about why I blog here.
I wish this blogging gig could pay my bills, but I suspect it’s the very fact that this is stuff I do ‘on the side’ of what I have to do that makes it so attractive. Connecting it to a paycheck might rob me of the joy of blogging.
8 Miko // Feb 20, 2007 at 1:22 pm
hmm, where, oh where, to start?
‚Ä¢ white (about as white as they come, you name the white Euro, I’m it; with just a little raped Native to keep things interesting)
• 26
• female
I used to blog with a bunch of friends at a site we raised & maintained. The longer it was up, though, the more problems we had. One person ended up with the bulk of the maintenance (because he is an HTML god and we merely accolytes), which made him feel pressured. Then different people wanted the site to go in different directions and it just fell apart. Probably for the best. Too many chiefs. When I was there, I blogged irregularly for the audience of the people who had blogs/accounts on the site. Family ended up reading it, causing hurt feelings and annoyance. I blogged about feelings (very high school of me, I know), mostly, but we also had fora for movie, book, and game reviews, which were fun, and recipes, which was also great.
Currently, I have two blogs: this one and a seasonal blog about a thanxgiving even I have annually. It gets updated in the few months running up to and running away from the actual date. I keep things there for my edification and for that of my guests, if they care (they prolly don’t). But, if you want a few ways to cook a goose (and there is more than one), you can find it there.
I’ve been thinking of turning my page of pictures of sewing into a sewing blog. Just as with my seasonal food blog above, I find that the resources I need/want to sew the things I want/need are rarely found in the places I look for them (online). Libraries are also often less than helpful. I find that the best resource is my mother’s brain (she’s like the Joy of Cooking for sewing, cooking, and baking). So it’d be fun for me to put that online in the form of a blog. But I’m on the fence about it and need a digital camera to pull it off the way I want to.
Here, I blog sporatically (sorry!). I try to keep my blogs to the topics at hand: feminism & spirituality. I know little to nothing about Mormonism (LDSism?) so I try to keep my hooks out of that, but come from a Christian background, which I sometimes think gives me the ability to comment on somethings.
I blog under a pseudonym. I have strong opinions. I know this. I’m likely to piss of just about everyone who reads anything I write. I live in a world where googling people is de rigur, whether before you meet someone or before you hire someone. I don’t want my particular views to have an impact on my job. Because they don’t. I’ve worked for The Great Satan. I didn’t enjoy it, but I was damn good at it (just ask anyone I worked with, for, or against). I think I’ve done pretty well, over 16 years on the ‘net and a google for me reveals one correct hit on the first page. I’ve had many names, Miko is the most recent.
When I moved to Europe, I was given a journal by a sister who told me that I would want to read what I wrote later in life. I think she was on something. I tried to journal (anyone else here hate verbed nouns?) in that thing, which was beautiful, but never managed anything worth reading. When I went to Africa, I took pictures & wrote poems. The poems may very well be of the “bad teenage” variety, but when I read them, they bring back the river, the sky, the trees, the savanna, and the blanket I lounged on. I now have at least three journals running around my house. One for dreams (I just started remembering my dreams, this is a huge deal for me), one given by an aunt for love notes to my husband and back, and one of everylittlething. Mostly spiritual ideas and problems to work out. That’s where all the prayers I pray are written, all my ideas about the nature of this world and the next (you think that’s trippy, I’ll blog about time some time), and song lyrics I’ve found profound. For a while, I had a fourth that I used for just spiritual stuff, but I found that so much of what I believe is rooted in the pratical, for want of a better word, so I find that combining them in journal form also works. I don’t date my journals (except the dream one, b/c I want to know when I skip a day) or even write in order. When I die, my followers will have to organize them by length, if they can tell when one ends and the other begins.
I like the separation of ideas that having more than one blog/journal gives me. I treat MoF as the second draft: likely in need of a little more polishing, but not the first thought and good enough to hand in for a B or an A-.
…I think that’s enough for now
9 Miko // Feb 20, 2007 at 2:58 pm
oh, and I yelp.
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