Part of a trend

Funny- sometimes I feel vindicated. Not always, and not fully. Just a little.

From the NYTimes yesterday came the following headline:

Survey of the Blogosphere Finds 12 Million Voices

What follows is an article that basically discusses an overview of blogging in the US and elsewhere. Including demographics, content, etc. Interesting I thought. And pretty cool to know that researchers are starting the plunge.

Seems that the majority of blogs are personal journals of a type. Nice to know that I'm part of a trend. Nothing special to see here, folksies!

"Bloggers are a mostly young, racially diverse group of people who have never been published anywhere else and who most often use cyberspace to talk about their personal lives, according to a report on blogging released yesterday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project."

Ok- so I defy the young part. And the racially diverse part. But otherwise, we're on track.

"The report also said that 8 percent of Internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog, and that 39 percent of Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs."

Yes, we're still on the same page- yay!

"Among the report’s findings was that while many well-known blogs are political in nature, 37 percent of bloggers use them as personal journals. Among other popular topics were politics and government (11 percent), entertainment (7 percent), sports (6 percent) and general news and current events (5 percent). Only 34 percent of bloggers considered blogging a form of journalism, and most were heavy Internet users."

Ok.

And finally-

"

Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired, a magazine about technology and culture, said the Pew report was accurate. “The finding that jumped out at me was the recognition that people are talking about the subjects that matter in their personal lives,” he said.

Mr. Anderson, the author of the book “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More” (Hyperion), said that the Pew report shows how the blogosphere is unlike traditional media. “It’s narrow, niche subjects,” he said. “It’s a granularity of media that we in the commercial media could not scale down to. Niche media is ‘me’ media, and the blogosphere is the ultimate manifestation of that.”

Now, about Anderson- he seems to be the flavor of the month. Much like Mr. Tipping Point- Malcolm Gladwell. Interestingly, I heard Anderson on NPR the day before yesterday talking about his book, and see that he's giving a talk at work next week (I'm, as a lowly contract employee, not invited- which pisses me of, but I'll get over it). Anyway, he seems intent on being the next big media marketing pundit. Only a matter of time until he appears on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (probably already has, and I missed it).

Enough on that. This topic isn't centered enough on ME.