I was chatting with a friend yesterday about the various behaviors that develop within the blog sphere. Now, these observations are not intended to be a qualitative commentary about blogging, but rather a list of objective observations.
The advent of new technologies that aid communication are often accompanied by a resulting pattern of behavior. Writing letters became more and more common as inventors improved writing tools. Today the evolution of these tools have crystalized a standard of written correspondence taught in elementary schools. Any sixth grader can tell you what a header, greeting, body, or salutation are when asked about letter writing. The telephone instigated ornate greetings such as "Hello, you have reached the Smith residence, how may I direct your call?" (though today the cell phone has diluted the use of such language). And then the cell phone came on the scene bringing with it a set of socially accepted etiquette requiring people to turn them off in certain public places or use the 'silent mode' setting.
Blogging, with its simple system of posting and commenting, has engendered its own unique sociology. Below are some observations collected through conversation and direct observation:
1. Comments = personal gratification: the confirmation of attention and interest in the post makes one feel appreciated, the more the merrier
2. Web Stats = personal gratification: the confirmation of attention and interest in the post through visitor tracking code makes one feel appreciated
3. Comment Fishing: the use of controversial topics, ending the post with non-hypothetical questions, or making mention of specific readers to generate a written response
4. Blog Loitering: a communal behavior where there are a collection of readers who always post a comment on a particular blog, often resulting in Blog Hijacking
5. Blog Hijacking: a phenomena where the topic of conversation among those commenting on a post veers away from the original topic of the post
6. Blog Junkies: bloggers who are obsessed with blogging (though the obsession is not necessarily unhealthy). Junkies often have an established list of blogs that they visit once or multiple times in a day, blog multiple times per day/week, and comment vociferously, often revisiting their own comments on other blogs to monitor their affect on the conversation
7. Blog Hermits: those who maintain a blog on a very sporadic schedule, leaving months or sometimes full years between posts
8. Blog Ghosts: those who read the posts of others without commenting, though their presence is relatively strong when checking the web stats of the blog
9. Blog Law of Gravity: the gravity or seriousness of the subject of a post is inversely proportional to the number of potential comments it will collect. If a post is more light hearted then people are more likely to comment. If a post is more grave (personal spiritual experiences or theoretical musings, for example) in nature then people are less likely to comment.
10. Blog Surfers: bloggers who travel between their favorite blogs by using links on the sidebar of each blog. The most agile blog surfers can navigate to each of his favorite blogs without having to click on the 'back' button in the browser.
any I've missed? ;-)
Posted by timf at June 14, 2006 02:42 PMblog addict= Gwen
other than that, i think you hit most of them.
Posted by: gwen at June 14, 2006 04:48 PMMy additions were:
Blog Virgin=Someone new to the blogging world who inevitabley starts their first post with, " . . . so this is my first time . . ."
Blog Harlot=Blogger who is introduced into a blogging community where they make friends but leave to go to a more popular community that has more flashy features.
Blog Schitzophrenia=The condition of having two highly diversified blogs. One is meant for friends and family and contains no controversial or incriminating material. The other, usually secret, is used for ranting, raving, swearing, and confessing.
Posted by: Beth Martin at June 14, 2006 11:34 PMbeth, you rock. excellent additions.
Posted by: andrea at June 15, 2006 01:54 AMBlog Link Happiness= Feeling of worth after discovering that one's blog has been linked to.
Posted by: steadybelieving at June 15, 2006 01:52 PMso true beth. is there anything more annoying in the blogosphere than someone who opens up their blog with "ok so this is my very first blog!" sorry to all of my friends who did this, but it's the truth.
ok so i switched from my space to blogger. i think my space is a little flashier than blogger. what does that make me?
Posted by: Justin at June 15, 2006 04:45 PMJustin, I think that your switch to blogger was a very wise decision. I loath myspace with a hearty passion. I posted about it on my (yes I have one) myspace account:
http://blog.myspace.com/timfgadabout
Posted by: timf at June 15, 2006 05:19 PMmyspace rocks.
Posted by: gwen at June 15, 2006 05:37 PMGwen, I am glad you like it. I wouldn't prefer it personally. I do like how you can easily find people that you know, but for me (probably as a guy) the bad outweigh the good.
Posted by: timf at June 15, 2006 06:10 PMi find it interesting how each blog has it's own persona. My space is certainly a very shallow yet fun place--very easy to meet people as you said. but at the same time, there's not a lot of worthy stuff said on there (think idle speech).
xanga is probably most commonly linked with the emo movement-- lots of distressed highschoolers on that one (and band poetry, mind you). there are, however, many an emo on my space.
blogger seems to be the place where the deeper, longer posts acumulate. not really a lot of pictures on this one compared to the other blogs. you could say it's the "coffee shop" of blogdom.
i'm not really sure about the others (i.e. multiply and word press). but maybe someone else could enlighten me.
Posted by: Justin at June 15, 2006 07:23 PMI think that a lot of blog personality has to do with those that you frequent. I have noticed, though, that myspacers tend to use the most attractive photo that they have as their identity pic.
Posted by: timf at June 15, 2006 09:24 PMThere are also those "too intellectual for a community" bloggers who have their own independent sites. :) I guess those would be Blog Snobs.
And, as we mentioned today, the Blog Vanity, where a person continually returns to their old posts just to revel in their own perceived cleverness
Posted by: Beth Martin at June 15, 2006 09:38 PMBlog Zombie: Generates no content for the community, posts consist of nothing more than links to other articles or pasted-in lyrics.
Blog Envy: A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the comments of another.
PS (Beth: You can buy blogsnob.com for $1995)
Posted by: Jesse Gardner at June 16, 2006 10:34 AMhttp://www.xanga.com/TheTheologiansCafe/497400602/the-bible-part-2.html
Does this prove or disprove #9?
Posted by: Jesse Gardner at June 16, 2006 11:23 AMi'm pretty sure i've generated a good ammount of blog envy from my last post. come join the party at "caldron pool."
Posted by: Justin at June 18, 2006 07:10 PMto be honest...blogging disgusts me in a way. i just created my own blog, and it is nice to have a place to write and keep up with people...or even just express your thoughts. but having one gives you this constant desire to check it. i think it disgusts me because people (my friends) are so into it - and i see myself succombing to the addiction. i'm just not sure what i think about it at present.
now please, don't get the wrong idea. i'm not trying to attack all of the "blog-lovers" out there. i'm just giving my opinion. (still love you tim...even if you are a blog addict ;)
Posted by: amber dawn at July 24, 2006 10:27 AMBLOGGIE BISCUIT- The little treat you get when another person comments on your blog because you commented on theirs. (BTW, THANKS! We LOVE comments!) Good Boy!
It was so good to get to know you and Amber a bit better on Sunday night! We enjoyed it. We want to have you guys over sometime, so be thinking about that.
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