Common Sense

The Pews Internet and American Life Project just released their survey of blogs and bloggers. Apparently, the vast majority are under 30 and very sociable. I’m halfway there, since I am possibly the most antisocial person any of you know. I yell at old people in line for being slow and I don’t even know who my neighbors are, just that they’ve lived next door for eight years.

More than half of bloggers are younger than 30, and a majority use their blogs as a mode of creative expression, the survey found. Money-making possibilities motivate only 15 percent of bloggers, and most blog on a variety of topics, with 11 percent focusing on politics.

They are also less likely to be white than the general Internet-using population, and more than half live in suburban areas, according to Pew.

“Bloggers in general don’t intend to have a lot of impact,” said Amanda Lenhart, who directed the survey. “The motivation comes from within; it tends to be very personal. They’re not out to change the world.”

Wrong! My motivation is to change the world and become the uncontested dictator of all mankind! Muahahahaha! Or to find a hot asian chick that finds my antics hilarious and will let me see her naked.

Blogs are also gaining readers, even if it’s fewer than 10 a day, which was reported by nearly 25 percent of the bloggers surveyed. The number of people regularly reading blogs has doubled in the past two years, and more than 49 million blogs are now on the Web, the blog-tracking service Technorati Inc. said.

“Of all the bloggers out there, there are only about 10,000 that have an audience beyond their friends and families,” said B.L. Ochman, a business blogger who tracks online trends.

“It astounds me that people are willing to do this stuff without getting paid,” Ochman said. “I come from a generation that gets paid for our work.”

It’s easy if you still live with your parents. Of course, a lot of my problems would be solved if all of you just gave me money.

About 33 percent of bloggers see blogging as a form of journalism, the survey showed.

“The average blogger is a 14-year-old girl writing about her cat,” said Alexander Halavais, an assistant professor of interactive communications at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.

Typical bloggers are not ranting about politics or trying to be hard-core journalists, he said. “The survey shows that blogging is really a community-based activity and a way of connecting with people.”

Journalists? Haha, that’s funny. By the way, how did he know I’m a 14-year-old girl? Has he been looking in my window, that perv! (Ed. note: I’m only a 14-year-old girl on the weekends. I’m poor and I live with my parents, I have to make money somehow). I actually blog so that I don’t have to go outside and deal with all you crazy bastards.

The number of bloggers will continue to grow in coming years, Lenhart predicted. Eighty percent of the survey respondents plan to be blogging a year from now.

“There’s a new blog every five minutes,” Ochman said. “Now everybody’s got a printing press.”

A year from now, I plan to be retired and married to a pornstar. So long, suckers!
By the way, there is a great editorial at CHUD that discusses the need for traditional movie critics, or the lack thereof, with so many people who have their own audiences on the Web. Pink Lady discusses how unbelievably old she is.