Bloggin' Gender-Benders
Since I already took a look at the gender issue in the realm of interactive fiction, I thought it would make sense to take a quick look at the gender issue in blogs as well.
After reviewing Vicki's presentation about the role of gender in blogging, I found it hard to believe that some of the statistics she cites were accurate.
According to the article Women and Children Last: The Discursive Nature of Weblogs, the majority of the "journal"-ish weblog community is made up of adult males or teenage females.
Adult males collectively maintain almost as many "journal"-type blogs as teenage females? That really struck me as odd. Somehow, I can't picture my dad, or any other adult male in my family, for that matter, going online to type up a blog entry on his latest job promotion or how he forgot his anniversary again. I also have two teenage sisters, and I can't imagine either of them keeping blog journals, either (but they're just plain weird, so I guess that accounts for it).
I would have expected most adult male bloggers to maintain weblogs that are for business or something similar, such as political affiliations. The statistics for teenage females pretty much confirmed what I thought, though; they are a lot more personal and emotional, and I know this from experience. Even the tiniest little occurance in their lives can become a huge issue if they have enough people to share it with.
After looking at these facts, though, I guess I'm a little more enlightened. I'm not sure if I will continue to update my weblog when I'm older, but I suppose I should be glad to know that I wouldn't be alone if I choose to do so one day.
Comments
Well, for people like me, there's lots of friends I met along the way who now I only have contact through Livejournal. A log for an adult doesn't mean a business thing; some people like to type up what they did that day or fill out little quizzes or surveys. It keeps the mind busy for some.
One thing which I feel is always an issue is how people act (and Jerz has said) about public comments. Livejournal can have friends only comments, you can hide entries from certain people, so it's not as public as he makes it. You can trust a select group of people, but on the opposite hand, if someone has a blog and thier spouse reads it and sees something they didn't expect, it could cause trouble.
Now, on my LJ friends list there's a few people who are older and update about thier life or go along with friends-list trends and such. Age has nothing to do with blogs, it's the content that changes.
Posted by: TimothyTraini | November 30, 2004 8:51 PM
I also thought that the statistics were not a surprise. I mean all teenage girls keep a diary throughout their teenage years. And well, which teenage girl do you know that doesn't have a daily life changing experience; according to her of course.
So these statistics didn't surprise me either.
Posted by: Denishia Salter | November 30, 2004 4:29 PM
Ha, I agree with you about the adult males. While some might spill their feelings through a blog, I don't think there are many. A guy probably don't want all their friends at work stumbling on their blog and reading about their troubled relationship with their wife. But maybe they do, I don't know...
No, the teenage statistics did not surprise me either. I can imagine the things my friends and I would have written had we blogged years ago. I can see the appeal for teenagers- you can vent all you want and people will read it! The perfect support system.
Posted by: Vanessa | November 29, 2004 9:20 PM