Summary and analysis of Why We Blog

Why We Blog is an insightful, albeit less recent (published in 2004), article that affirms what I have come to understand about blogs while helping me navigate some of the finer, less noticed aspects of blogs and blogging culture. The authors of the article interviewed 23 bloggers from California and New York, who were all middle-class adults either in school or employed. The interviews allow us, the readers, to understand the process of blogging and some trends that were popular in 2004 and that are, through my observations and experiences, still popular today. Some blogs are updated multiple times per day while others are updated much less often. It would be interesting to examine the crossover between blogging use and social network use. Much like social networks today, blogs, then and now, serve as a place to discuss any topics such as radial interests or phenomenological observations. Bloggers are motivated to blog in ways such as: documenting his/her life; much like one would keep a physical journal, commenting on popular topics, releasing passionate emotions about a topic, writing introspectively, and/or as a meeting place for other bloggers, or non-bloggers, to congregate and discuss topics. The latter aspect seems to have been replaced by social networks, although blogs with specific topics and purposes create and foster an environment that is more likely to attract the intended audience. In today's internet culture, I, much like many others, use social networks to promote our blogs so that our connections (Friends, Followers, etc...) on social networks may find and share our blog and, therefore, be willing to engage with it.