Humph. I knew it... blogging = masturbating
I've always had a problem with the self-indulgent nature of blogging. Some of the stuff I've seen reminds me of nothing more than public masturbation. This morning, I discovered that my suspicions are justified.
Andrew Orlowski of The Register picked up on a survey that sought to discover why Americans blog. 48.7 percent say it "serves as therapy" and another 40.8 percent use it as a means of keeping family and friends up to date. My inner snark adds to that second category "... without actually having to talk to them."
It also seems that a lot of people are blogging to be fashionable. This of course means that not a lot of them keep up their blogs, and abandon them like an Easter pet. I've seen a number of orphaned blogs floating around, like virtual ghost towns. It makes me wonder just how much of the Web is derelict; not just static, but abandoned. (But I digress...)
I love Andrew's comment on the universality of the results:
"It's hardly surprising that this most solipsistic and egotistical of communications tools attracts people looking for help. But the survey was conducted in the United States, where therapy doesn't have the social stigma that it does in Europe, and comes as naturally to an American as shooting a road sign." Heh heh...
Now it's my turn to get all self-righteous: I'm just doing this to keep my fingers nimble. Really.
The Register's link:
http://www.theregister.com/2005/09/22/blogging_is_therapy/
The original report at eMarketer:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003595
Andrew Orlowski of The Register picked up on a survey that sought to discover why Americans blog. 48.7 percent say it "serves as therapy" and another 40.8 percent use it as a means of keeping family and friends up to date. My inner snark adds to that second category "... without actually having to talk to them."
It also seems that a lot of people are blogging to be fashionable. This of course means that not a lot of them keep up their blogs, and abandon them like an Easter pet. I've seen a number of orphaned blogs floating around, like virtual ghost towns. It makes me wonder just how much of the Web is derelict; not just static, but abandoned. (But I digress...)
I love Andrew's comment on the universality of the results:
"It's hardly surprising that this most solipsistic and egotistical of communications tools attracts people looking for help. But the survey was conducted in the United States, where therapy doesn't have the social stigma that it does in Europe, and comes as naturally to an American as shooting a road sign." Heh heh...
Now it's my turn to get all self-righteous: I'm just doing this to keep my fingers nimble. Really.
The Register's link:
http://www.theregister.com/2005/09/22/blogging_is_therapy/
The original report at eMarketer:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003595
posted by PJ at 10:00 AM
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