April 16, 2008
Reading Blogs Can Become Habitual, Like Smoking (but Safer)
Warning: This blog could become habit-forming.
A study of blog readers’ behavior found that for many people, checking favorite blogs is part of a routine that they feel compelled to repeat each day.
“I don’t know if I look forward to” reading blogs, said one participant in the study. “I don’t really look forward to cigarettes anymore, but it’s something that happens through the course of the day that I feel like I might need to do. It just becomes habit, I guess.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by many other participants in the study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of California at Irvine. “When asked about motivations for reading blogs, participants said they visit blogs for information, inspiration, entertainment, and to a certain extent because it is just what they have always done,” says a report on the study. The report was presented at a conference sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery.
Some of the blog readers interviewed for the study also felt an obligation to comment on particularly good blog posts, “as a courtesy“—especially if the post was written by a friend. And the readers felt that they were part of a community, even if they rarely commented on a blog they read.
Though readers might feel addicted to their blogs, participants in the study did not report feeling overloaded. If they missed a few days, many said they just skipped over what they had missed and then picked up reading.
It’s important to note that the study was small—with only 15 subjects—and took place in one area (Irvine, Calif.). But those of us at Wired Campus hope the conclusions are right.
See you here again tomorrow. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Wednesday April 16, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Okay but don’t you think some people are just read/write-aholics anyway? Blogs just give us a different way to satisfy the craving. (I’m not referring to MYSELF of course. Nahhhhhh.)
— kgotthardt Apr 16, 06:11 AM #
Wifey started two blogs last year and it has changed her life. Makes me feel that I wasn’t a very good conversationalist-listener. (Ha!) She is widely read from many parts of the world.
— Douglas Apr 16, 08:37 AM #
We are all so sick to death of centralized media, editing truth into lowest common denominator tidbits that offend no one by omitting any part of reality that might hurt some local bigots bigotry. After a solid 50 years of central mass media, the whole world is sick of them and their overpaid ignorant faces and voices.
Even the worst bloggs are fun and informative and honest in that they present their partialities proudly not hiding them and they often have high common denominators not lowest ones. It is sooooo refreshing to hear and read someone NOT doing and talking merely for money. It feels unAmerican but it also feels good. As if America had a hope of reaching European levels of lifestyle and disourse in another 200 years of growth.
— Richard Tabor Greene Apr 17, 02:42 AM #