The ABC reported yesterday afternoon that "blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships, both online and face-to-face." I must admit to feeling a bit this way as well, especially when you discover that there appear to be some (albeit not very many) people out there who are reading what you say (thank you Google Analytics). The fact that potential exchanges are global in scope maybe intensifies the feeling of interaction. I've certainly interacted with more people from a richer variety of cultures than I've perhaps been able to prior to getting into the whole blogging experience (visiting other people's pages, leaving comments, joining into discussions on a whole host of ideas and issues that reflect the diversity of the globe).
The study itself strikes me as a little flawed though, does maintaining a My Space page count as a blog? I've always thought of it as an aesthetically displeasing social network, but maybe that's my age showing!
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Thanks for your interest in the research!
After thinking about it yesterday afternoon, I figured that it must have meant that. Having never really delved too deeply into My Space (for fear of epileptic fits from all that flashing gif), I'm no doubt ignorant of how many of its users utilise the blogging tool. Now I'm going to have to locate the published paper itself.
Thanks again for the explanation, that’s made my day!
It is amazing how much smaller the world is with the internet. I marvel to think about the delays in / lack of communication for humanity past...
Thanks again!