Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Blogs

(that's me working...ha ha just kidding)
As I've mentioned before, me and my friend are considering making our seminar about blogging. We did a little brainstorming today and these are some of the issues we're interested in analyzing (we'll have to select the best for studying later, according to our teacher's opinion and our own conclusions):
- the motivations behind writing on a blog - what are the intentions behind this communication?
- the motives behind every type of blog - diary, social commentary, reviews...
- the target population of the blogs
- a comparison between the community and group of friends in "real life" and the blogging community;
- development in the contents and intentions of blogging - is there a blog pressure?
These are a few of those I can remember. I think some things are really interesting and could be worth studying. Have you got any more ideas you want to share with me? I think this will be a very auto-biographical work. ;P

9 comments:

Cathy said...

I think you will find that there is a lot of literature on this subject, both academic and general. I have come across a few PhD theses which specifically discussed the sociology of blogging. If you go to Dr. Deborah Serani who is linked on my site, she had a post awhile back on the Physchlogy of blogging, with references.

Sounds like a fun and relevant paper!

Steve House said...

I think you should look at how it develops a sense of community. Or about whether it becomes a habit.

I also think you could look into the types of post, whether they are personal, fictional, photos, long, short, stories, family orientated, etc.

As well as looking at what people want to gain from it why not look at what they do. Whether its escapism, a place to release thoughts and ideas, social acceptance, etc

Devil Mood said...

Thanks for your great ideas, bloggers :) I'll consider them very carefully. I just can't seem to think about them today. I'm so tired I think I'll have to go to bed earlier than when I was 3 years old :P

Pepsicology said...

;-) Well, whenever you are recovered you may find useful some of the links in here:
http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/index.html

From the questions you posted I'd vote for the last one.

If it is of any help, I could point out also in the blogging phenomena the subtle presence of that old desire in the human being for persistance, you could refer to it in many ways, ie.: the wish to trascend time, to pass to posterity in some way, to be remembered for something -you could even link this with the beliefs in Antiquity re. inmortality, there is plenty about it-. You could question it as well from a more "apocaliptic" kind of view, like blogging contemplated in a way as a desperate aim to register everything -parallel to "photo euforia" for instance- given the uncertainty of these times -nuclear weapons,natural disasters, etc- or simply because life could be seen as too short or fragile given the crisis from the XXs re. strong religious beliefs.

And thus ends up the lesson! :-)

Valerene said...

interesting.

another thing that maybe you could do is narrow your seminar down to one type of blog only after briefly explaining each kind of blog. focusing on just one kind of blog and the habits and motivations behind it would provide more insight and depth. but of course you would need to research and analyze more regarding that certain type of blog.

Pepsicology said...

This can be quite an interesting blogging about blogging project. Keep us a bit up-to-date about it please.

Devil Mood said...

This is fun because the suggestions you've been making are a real reflection of what is most relevant to you in blogging :)

Cathy: I'll keep that in mind. I hope I can make it relevant - right now it's just a blur ;)

Madelyn: There's a lot of different personal experiences and motivations in blogging. I may interview you all to understand that better.

Day: You're right, it's a better idea to keep things familiar. And real.

Esuoh: there's so much stuff related to blogging, I'm starting to get scared. But your ideas are very welcome.

Omara: thank you. You're such a knowlegable person, it amazes me :) I had a similar thought: since only what was written in the past is known nowadays, what is the social future of blogs...are they going to be read in a hundred years? Can we have endless archives? How will people select the relevant information they want to know about the past in such abundance of information? Sure, I'll keep you posted!

Valerene: Yes, maybe just one type of blog is better. Anyway, I'll have to narrow down many of my ideas because there seems to be a lot of information around. I feel particularly lost in the middle of information this week...;P

x said...

as time goes on, my question is this: when you have established a community of friends, do you still write the first thing that comes to your mind? i've been thinking about this quite a lot (my answer is yes)

Devil Mood said...

Chloe: I've thought about that too and I still wonder if people ever write the first thing that comes to their mind...no blog is totally private. There's always a chance someone will read it. I'm happy that you came to that conclusion :)