Blogging About Nothing at All

Posted on September 29, 2005

The Independent Tigerweekly has an article by Stephen Phillips that analysis three of the personal blog services often used by teen bloggers and college students. In the article, Stephen Phillips says that he thinks some people blog for no reason at all.

About five years ago, the popularity of personal Web sites was booming. Everyone with a buddy list had his or her own Web site. It was a simple site, with a few pictures, some text, and some outdated information that no one ever read. Since then, the birth and the growing epidemic of people who realize they have opinions replaced the humble personal Web page. Enter the Internet blog.
Some blog sites would like to maintain the image of being an online diary, but diaries are personal. The purpose of a diary is to write for yourself, but most people don't do this. Not everyone is out to impress or gain something from their blog. Some people blog for absolutely no reason at all, and it shows.

Stephen Phillips also describes some of the blogs that can be found on the personal blog services Xanga, LiveJournal and MySpace.com. Phillips says the most hated kind of blogs are the quiz whores.

Finally, there are the most hated of all bloggers: The quiz whores. Why would anyone else want to know what "Napoleon Dynamite" character you're most like?

Apparently, Phillips is not a fan of the quiz generating websites like blogthings.com. Stephen Phillips is overly harsh of some of the personal blogs in the blogosphere but he is correct that many blogs are about nothing -- at least nothing that's important to anyone but the blogger and his or her audience. A recent study found that many blog because they find it relaxing or therapeutic and not because they want to make money or think they will become famous. Personal blogs are also useful to teens and college students because they allow them communicate and interact with peers in a way that has not been possible before. A blog may seem excruciatingly trivial or boring to an outsider even though it is entertaining and/or therapeutic to the individual blogger.