Blogging: Web revolution changes the way we communicate
Posted on Sunday, September 3, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/Business/39207/
Ed Vielmetti started blogging seven years ago as a way to keep in touch with friends and family while traveling for work. Back then, he was one of a select few tech-heads who could figure out how to code and update a Web page.
“ Blogging became an easier way to communicate with a bunch of people than sending a lot of e-mails, ” he said.
Today, Vielmetti is one of 12 million adults blogging around the country, a club that is growing daily (up from 3 million just four years ago ) as blogging gains mainstream cachet. Around the globe, there are more than 52 million blogs in existence, with 75, 000 more being added each day, according to the blog tracking service Technorati Inc.
Metro Detroiters are right in the thick of this social technology revolution that is changing the way people relate and communicate. It’s impossible to count exactly how many blogs there are in a given area, but Alexander Halavais, while a professor at the University of Buffalo, and his student, Jia Lin, attempted to track it using 2003 Census data. They found 2, 077 bloggers in the Ann Arbor area and 1, 914 bloggers in the northern suburbs of Metro Detroit.
What is it about blogging that has captivated America ? For one, it’s really easy. There is a plethora of free software like Google’s Blogger that make creating a blog as simple as typing information into boxes — simple enough that many bloggers who have never created a Web page are doing it for the first time.
Beyond its ease, blogging is personal yet public. It gives people a creative outlet that is easily shared with friends, family, the community and the world. It brings people who share similar passions together. And it gives everyday folks, the grass roots, a voice.
“ Blogging became something for everyone, ” said Charles Steinfeld, a professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at Michigan State University.
“ What blogs and other social networking software bring to us is the ability to present ourselves publicly to people and in the process receive feedback from others, ” said Amanda Lenhart, who directed the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the first quantifiable analysis of the characteristics of American bloggers.
The typical blogger, according to the Pew study, is younger than 30, lives in suburbia and is white. The number of men and women is about evenly split.
While Vielmetti, 41, is older than most bloggers, his reasons for blogging are among the most common. Vielmetti mainly blogs to document news, share personal experiences and to stay in touch with friends and family.
“ Mostly it’s writing about things that I want to remember, ” Vielmetti said. “ It’s easier to remember if you tell someone. ”
Bloggers say the top reason they blog is to express themselves creatively. Less than a third say they blog mainly to influence the way people think, even though blogs have become known in the general public for trying to do just that, especially in the political sphere.
The 2004 presidential election was the first in which blogs played an important role, helping candidates like Howard Dean galvanize grassroots support and serving as venues for political debate.
“ They became known in the American mind as a place where political discussion was occurring, ” Lenhart said.
Blogs also have served as supplements or checks to the mainstream media, questioning, for example, the credibility of Dan Rather and CBS News over memos alleging preferential treatment toward President Bush.
“ You had to say (blogs ) had a huge influence, ” Steinfeld said.
Look for the Internet to impact future elections, too.
“ Certainly I think you can no longer have a campaign without having some sort of Web presence, ” Lenhart said.
Blogging’s ability to hook up people passionate about a particular interest is one of its most endearing qualities.
Ryan Sult blogs about Detroit’s local music scene with his friend Matt Caruana. On an edgy-looking black and red Web site, they write about upcoming shows and new albums, and even spout off on off-music topics like Detroit’s recent Men’s Journal ranking as the third angriest city in the United States.
Businesses also are jumping on the blogging bandwagon.
“ More and more companies are asking about this, ” said Andy King, president of an Ann Arbor company called Web Site Optimization, LLC., which works with companies to improve their Web presence.
General Motors Corp. was one of the first corporations to set up a blog, launching its first in 2004.
“ This was an opportunity to kind of change some of the perceptions about our product quality, ” said Michael Wiley, GM director of new media.
GM launched its Fast Lane blog in 2005, which Wiley says has been a hit. Daily readership averages 4, 000 to 5, 000 readers, he said, and readership ticks up to 10, 000 daily at the time of the auto show.