Where are the seniors and poor? One of the topics at last night's blogger meetup (hey Dan Rubin was there, so was Scott, Albert, Tony, Howard, and Mark, where were you?) led me to walk away believing bloggers are mostly comprised of young to middle aged folks who are middle to upper middle class.
Do you know a senior citizen blogger? Do you know of anyone who is lower middle class or poor who is blogging? (share links in thread)
There has been plenty of bemoaning in various parts of the web about sexism and blogging - but are income and age larger factors?
Here goes another thought - we self segregate based on blogging toolset. Why does Xanga attract so many teenagers? Or LiveJournal so many women? Are there statistical facts to support these assertions? And if so, is there an invisible linking wall between the WordPress/MoveableType-TypePad/Blogger-Blogspot users and LiveJournal/Xanga folks that keep each from seeing the other?
Related:
- The Calico Cat: Blogger vs. Xanga - a teenager's view (and check out the comments thread).
- elise.com: Weblog Tools Market - Update February 2005
- CNet: Your own personal soapbox: five blogger services reviewed (TypePad, Blogger, MSN Spaces, Yahoo 360 (beta), AOL Journals)
- The Ageless Project has lists of bloggers grouped by the decade in which they were born. Thanks SherriW.
- MySpace is a growing alternative to the 'big three' and has music as a terrific community building tool. Thanks ALa.
- BusinessWeek: MySpace's networking portal has a cool factor MSN and Yahoo! can't match -- yet
- SearchViews: Why MySpace Rocks
Share links and comments.
Curious Blogger
Interesting blog facts, Karl. I would like to join the Philly blogger's hot topics session. Where is it held? I recall that it was at a Pub in Philly, but not specifics. I want to get mapquest directions, so I can find the place. Now that the school year is over (as of today, woo-hoo!), this mommy can go out on a weeknight. ;-)
I'm curious about which blog host is the most user friendly and also has the most cool features. Maybe you could tell me. I am only familiar with blogger.com.
Oh,
I found Scott's post on the location. Sorry for the silly question...
I wish I could have been ther
I wish I could have been there.
In the philly area, I know there are a few women bloggers - myself included.
It would be great to see you both there
We need to get the word out about this monthly meeting. It seems large groups of bloggers (politically focussed, personal, sports focussed, so forth) just don't know about it - or think it has something to solely to do with Philly Future - which it does not. It is a *blogger* meetup.
Whether you participate at PF or not - it's an opportunity to hang out with folks who are exploring and sharing online.
Blogger and Livejournal
I use blogger but one thing I have heard about Livejournal is that you can lock certain content and restrict it only to the people you want to see it. And all of those people must be Livejournal users. I admit that I do know one female on Livejournal who talks about guys she has met in the restricted part.
I don't think that proves anything but just saying.
One collection
About the generational divide: The Ageless Project has collected a list of bloggers across various age ranges. Another blogger I read keeps a Typelist of older (I think 50yo and up?) bloggers she calls the "Sagacious Tribe." I don't know how many of the bloggers listed there are from the Philly region, nor do I know how to find that out without simply follwiong each and every link to read for georgraphical identifiers.
About income: in this age of the continuing digital divide, why wouldn't you expect a majority of bloggers to be from middle and upper income brackets? A majority of everything-else Internet is from the middle and upper income brackets, so why would blogging be any different?
About the Meetups: I truly hope to be able to attend come July. I've had a standing Wednesday-night after-work meeting that kept me busy till 7:45 (and made me much too exhausted to go anywhere afterwards). However, the end of the fiscal year means the end of that particular obligation, so fingers crossed and all that....
Bloggers- we're ordinary folk!
Dear Karl,
We are sorry we couldn't attend your gathering, but last night we had public meetings to attend! We wanted to let you know that the Save Ardmore Coalition is a veritable melting pot. We represent many cross sections of life and the community! And we love, love, love this web site! Thanks to PhillyFuture we are getting our message out even more! If you want to come meet us some time, you are welcome to attend one of our meetings, go to our web site for details, shoot us an e-mail!
Thanks!
www.SaveArdmoreCoalition.ORG
saveardmore@AOL.com
"Fight Eminent Domain Abuse. It doesn't discriminate. Today it's Ardmore, tomorrow, your town or neighborhood"
My Space
Don't for get about MySpace which seems to be the 20-somethings answer to traditional dating services....
It seems it's Xanga for the teens, My Space for the 20's and Blogger or buying your own domain for those of us that are a wee bit older...
Mmmm. Beer.
I really wanted to come after work, but I couldn't stick around until 7:00 last night (I'm an R5, Main Line snot).
Yeah, I have a LiveJournal, although I haven't used it since I started posting on PhillyFuture. I also have an iBlog, which I would prefer over anything else if I knew the first thing about installing a HaloScan-ish comment system and changing the design of my page. My iBlog program, easy as it may be for some, completely mystifies me. I'm working on typing up the journal from my recent trip to China, which should be at the iBlog site within a week or so.
Anyway, I swear I'll make it to the next meetup.
haloscan
simple! all you gotta do is think up some way to name each comment/trackback entry, say, the date + number.
Great suggestions and input
Keep it coming :)
ALa: I think MySpace is really significant in a few ways. The way music helps folks to connect there is just awesome.
SherriW: The Ageless Project blew my mind. Wow! I think a part of me knows you're right about income and middle class bloggers - but I'd like to think about this some more. Computers and online services are coming down in price everyday - I got a feeling this is going to change. Any thoughts on that and what might happen when it does?
The West End: I think you brought up an important point about LiveJournal - the fact that you can restrict the visibility of posts is a feature the other well known toolsets don't have.
RisingSign: hey - I'm very, very happy you've decided to use PF a home for your writing. Hope more join you.
Jessika: I'm looking forward to seeing you (and everyone else here) at upcoming meetups. The more the merrier. They're for all of us :)
Wish I could have been there too...
oh wait, I was -- did you forget me there Karl?
I didn't forget ya boss
But I did write a post at an off hour. Apologies :) I fixed the post.
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