This week, NPR is 'celebrating' the 10th Anniversary of blogging with stories on the topic throughout the week.
Today, on Morning Edition the version of an 'audio blog' was both hilarious (I was laughing out loud!) and informative.
Here's the link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17562078
It's worth a listen, I promise. As the week goes on I'll try to post links to the other stories if they are any bit as good as this one.
From this link you can also view related stories. I found the stats under "Learning to Embrace My Inner Blogger" fascinating.
Who blogs? Which sex blogs more? Which race? Which age group? I was actually surprised that more women than men blog (not sure why as it makes sense).
And WHY DO WE BLOG? The number one reason people cited as their reason for blogging: to express themselves creatively. A whopping 77% of folks said this. "To document, share personal experiences" came in next at 76%. "To stay in touch with friends, family" (59% of bloggers) was also a common reason folks blogged. From the list, these three most closely resembled why I blog.
The surveys were conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Here's a short clip from the story, of which the third paragraph I found hysterical. I realized how lucky I was to have anyone other than myself and my parents reading my blog at all!
Morning Edition, December 24, 2007 · Ten years ago, the phrase "Web log" — which was then shortened to "blog" — was born.
In a week-long series, NPR takes a look at the evolution of the blogosphere and to find out who's blogging, examine the language and culture of blogs, and find out how blogs are changing our lives.
According to Sreenath Sreenivasan of Columbia Journalism School, there are more than 100 million blogs and 100,000 new blogs are created daily. However, he adds, most are read by only the writer and his mother.
And did you ever wonder how we got the term blog to begin with? Well, here it is. Corina, this is especially for you! And I really hope you can listen to that story all the way over there in the Netherlands.
Spring 1999: Online journal author Peter Merholz takes Jorn Barger's word "weblog" and splits it into the phrase "We blog." Blog soon becomes shorthand for weblog.
During the story, one of the bloggers mentions the year 1994--the year I started college--as a year when new websites could easily be condensed into a newsletter announcing their launch and the entire web could be perused in a couple of days if one wanted to. I felt old. And absolutely flabbergasted by how our world has changed in such a short time.
When I was in college we did our research the old-fashioned way--searching the stacks in the basement of the Davidson College library for journal articles. No 'virtual journals' existed then. I never 'instant messaged' with anyone until I discovered Gmail two years ago. At Davidson, our email was archaic at best, not to mention that in 1998 we were still sharing a dial-up connection that also served as our phone line amongst four people. My caregivers, all current college students, can't remember a life without email or instant messenging or high speed internet or doing their research via computer. Their eyes bug out when I mention sharing a phone line and internet connection with three other women. Oh, there were no cell phones then either they say? How did we do it? Suddenly I feel old at 32??
Now I find myself going through 'withdrawal' if I can't check my email or reach out through blogging or 'Google' whatever topic I'm currently interested in. In some respects, I'd like to give up some of the chaos of technology for the good old days, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like to part with my blog!
Happy Blogging to my fellow Bloggers. And to my Faithful Readers, Thank You,
Emily
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