The Pew Internet & American Life Project published a report today that tries to explain why bloggers do what they do. The report oddly focuses on storytelling versus journalism (what’s the difference?), but more importantly, produced these statistics:
- 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere.
- 8% of Internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog.
- 39% of Internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs – a significant increase since the fall of 2005.
- 84% of bloggers describe their blog as either a “hobby” or just “something I do, but not something I spend a lot of time on.”
- 59% of bloggers spend just one or two hours per week tending their blog. One in ten bloggers spend ten or more hours per week on their blog.
- 52% of bloggers say they blog mostly for themselves, not for an audience. About
one-third of bloggers (32%) say they blog mostly for their audience.
1 response so far ↓
1 SueMuse // Jul 19, 2006 at 10:29 pm
I have seen this report on several sites. I think the 84% who blog for a “hobby”, include those who are marketing something and their “real hobby” is to make money from Google’s Ad Sense.
I also feel that some of those who blog “just for something to do” may be dealing with an addiction. or what Dr. Suler calls, “the online disinhibition effect”. I would also recommend, “The Psychology of Cyberspace ” a blog maintained by Dr. John Suler a Professor at the University of Rider. Dr. Suler not only examines the many facets of the “psychology of blogging”, but explores the addiction process as well. Like Alice through the looking glass, “cyberspace is an extension of the mind”.
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