Some pretty interesting findings about those of us who create content online. Aside from the connection, I’m like a poster boy for this stuff. Personally, I’m amazed at that 2% statistic, which just goes to show how skewed my reality is. I just cannot imagine (nor can I scarcely remember) what my newsgathering and info collecting life would be like without Weblogs and RSS and Furl and Bloglines, which is either a sad commentary on my existence or a reminder that we’re all still way out in front of the curve. Whichever, I still find it all pretty intruiging and useful. Here are some gleanings from the report:
In this survey, we found that a mere 2% of Internet users in this survey reported writing a weblog or online diary. Earlier surveys and a follow up check in early 2004 indicate that between 2% and 7% of Internet users publish a ‘blog. Within this tiny group, only about 10% report updating their blog daily. Most weblog writers update their blogs once a week or less often.
Even though only a small number of Internet users are writing blogs, a slightly larger number of Net users are visiting them. Eleven percent of Internet users report visiting blogs written by others. And of these blog readers, a third report posting to or commenting on the blog entries that they have read.
Blog readers most frequently visit the online diaries of friends (56% have done so), strangers (46% have visited the blogs of people they have never met) and family members (a quarter report visiting family blogs).
Whether or not they have created original content to the Internet world, a greater percentage (though still not an overwhelming number of users) make content available online. One in five Internet users report posting photographs to the net, and 17% of Internet users have posted writing. Just about 5% of Internet users have posted artwork, audio files or video files to the Internet.
Content creators are also disproportionately likely to be students—20% of all content creators are full-time or part-time students.
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