Webupon

Why Do People Blog?

Do you blog or are you considering setting up a blog? Why do you blog? Why are you considering starting a blog? This article answers some of these questions.

Blogging maybe old news to some but millions more are still discovering the medium. The AndAnotherThing Team has been contacting new bloggers this year to ask them why they started blogging. We contacted a total of 527 new bloggers and discovered the three main reasons they think they blog. The following includes some quotes from the people we interviewed

BLOGGING GIVES US A VOICE

It seems that many of our survey’s responders blog to give themselves a voice.

“Before I blogged” said one man, a 35 year old from Bristol, “nobody even knew I had an opinion and, quite frankly, neither did I. Since I started blogging in January this year, I have discovered my opinions on everything from Jade Goodie to Bernard Matthews, beans on toast to scrambled egg on toast. I hate Jade Goodie, Bernard Matthews, beans on toast and scrambled egg on toast but it taken my blog to realize these facts about me.

Another responder, who described herself as a silver surfer, (74 from Sunderland) said:

“All my life I have been told not to moan and nag and, apart from small outbursts, I have lived the best part of a century obeying this instruction. My blog has therefore been liberating. I can moan about the crap they feed us in restaurants, about what passes as entertainment on the television, the weather, people’s dirty nets, net curtains in general, stupid hoodie wearing youngsters, bad mannered shop-keepers, litter-louts, people who don’t know how to blow their noses, smelly people, loud people, public transport, Tony Blair turning into a fascist and brown-nosing George W, the idiotic behavior of people my age and people conducting inane surveys, the latest being about why I blog by a stupid woman claiming to represent the AndAnotherThing team. Since I started blogging last week I have a new purpose in life – to tell anyone who will listen what I dislike and why I dislike. I used to stay in bed most days until 8am, now I’m up at 6 and blogging – I have a lot of time to make up for”.

Perhaps the saddest person in this category was Gilbert, 45 of Surrey. “I blog because I have nobody to talk to and I’m very lonely. My only friend, George, hasn’t spoke to me for fifteen years since we argued about the grocery bill and I accused him of making me pay 51% of it instead of the 50% I should have paid. I discovered that he had been doing this for a number of years and very reasonably suggested that he reimburse me the 1% plus a reasonable compounded interest. 1% below bank base rate”.

WE BLOG FOR THERAPY

Doctor P (full name and location withheld) claimed he prescribed blogging to many of his bored housewife patients at his alternative therapy centre in Sunderland. He told the AndAnotherThing interviewer:

“Several of my blogging patients are celebrities, two at least appear on WAGS Boutique and others are similar to the women depicted on Desperate Housewives. Since they started blogging I have noticed a drastic decrease in their attention seeking behavior, drug and alcohol abuse”.

The AndAnotherThing team was able to contact one of Dr P’s celebrity blogging patients. She confirmed Dr P’s claims for the benefits of blogging. Sylvia (real name withheld) 22 of Manchester told AndAnotherThing:

“When Sam, my boyfriend who plays for a Premiership Football team, used to ignore me, I couldn’t cope. I used to drink copious amounts of vodka and go out on the town with the girls and end up having my knickers photographed by the Paparazzi when I fell out of the taxi. Now to get Sam’s attention I just threaten to include details of his poor sexual performance in my next blog and to tip of the press that it’s me writing about him. I could give opposing fans something to chant about on the terraces and he knows it”.

BLOGGING AS A BOREDOM CURE

Blogging to relieve the symptoms of boredom was also a prominent finding of the And Another Thing survey. Sophie, 19 of Nottingham said:

“I hate my job but can’t give it up because I need the money. It’s an easy job – I answer the phone and buzz people in. On average I answer the phone 7 times a day and buzz in a maximum of 4 people from 10 – 4. I get paid £42k a year for doing it and the only other jobs I’ve been offered pay just slightly more than the minimum wage and involve longer hours. Now I can blog, the days fly by and (as I always look busy) Mr Grimsthorpe has decided he will increase my salary and give me longer holiday entitlements starting April. Until I blogged the only relief I had from the boredom of my job was visiting comedymoment.uk and buying the goods and services the site advertises in between the laughs it supplies. I still visit comedymoment.co.uk, once before I start blogging at 10:15 and once after I’ve finished blogging for the day at 15:15”.