Blogs: Creative expression or way of connection?

Chimes of choice

By: Marci Manley

Posted: 9/15/06

Have you ever wondered why people felt it necessary to share their every thought, feeling and random idea with others?

The questions that entice my curiosity are why do other people care, or do people care?

Apparently so if the boom in blog usage is any indication.

More than 8 million people keep Web logs, popularly known as blogs, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Bloggers can vary in age and gender, but it's clear that some age groups enjoy the experience more than others.

Sixty-eight percent of bloggers are female, and about 60 percent of bloggers are between the ages of 15 and 19.

Less than 2 percent of bloggers are older than 40, according to Perseus Development Corporation.

Here on the UA campus there are bloggers whose topics vary from their everyday experiences to expounding upon such specialized subjects as economic fluctuations.

I manage two blogs myself: one so my friends and family can read my newspaper columns and the other is my tirade about life and the experiences that I think are important.

These blogs might only have a small following of friends and die-hard fans, who usually share the author's genetic makeup, or they can catch the eye of interested readers across the nation.

One UA blogger, whose identity will remain his pseudonym BleedRzrbkRed, has been noted in online blogs such as "The Capital Spectator" for his choice of content and his views on economics in general.

Where do bloggers do their dirty work? At a number of blog sites and networking pages, like MySpace and Facebook.

The top blog sites overall are Blogspot, Live Journal, Typepad and Xanga, according to ZDNet's research.

A search of Livejournal.com came back with 87 hits from authors that cite themselves as members of the UA community or interested in the UA.

Searching on Xanga reported 2,312 blog entries from users in Fayetteville or about the city, the first five of those directly relating to Razorback sports.

No real research has been conducted on the actual content of blogs.

Rather extensive research has been conducted to characterize who blogs, but not much of that research has focused on why we blog.

Those who blog are more apt to be highly skilled in navigating the Internet and using a computer in general, according to ZDNet.com.

Those who actively update their written blogs are also more likely to participate in downloading music and editing Web-based video logs as well.

Scanning through some of these blogs and video logs, I have found that some of the people who devote their time to updating their written masterpieces really are crafting fine literature sometimes. Others' goals seem to be keeping boredom at bay, and still there are those who are simply out to make themselves laugh.

It's impressive to see what the average college student can do with a webcam, music bytes and an editing program.

They can create some of the funniest, most creative accounts of personal experiences that I've had the pleasure of watching.

Perhaps the future of creative brilliance and community connection lies within the "information superhighway."

We can instantaneously search to find which stocks dropped, how much oil has risen and where President Bush will be speaking on a given day and maybe even what he plans to wear.

The next step is knowing what is going on in the lives of the people around us with them allowing us a glimpse at their ability to take something as mundane as life and make it entertaining.

What can arise, however, is that we no longer connect on a face-to-face basis, but rather communicate through a network of online posts and discussion boards.

Will this growing trend in blogs mean an end to the everyday conversation and phone calls?

Or is it just another aspect of becoming more informed, better educated and more technologically advanced?

Marci Manley is a staff writer for The Arkansas Traveler. Her column appears every other Friday.