Why read a weblog?

Weblogs are a socially constructed reality in which the Reader’s contribution equals that of the Writer. It is a phenomenological reality. Despite having contrary perspectives the expectations of both parties are interdependent, and symbiotic. The reasons people read weblogs differ from the reasons they are written. Both parties have a contract to do their bit.

Why do people read weblogs? I’m sure there are as many reasons for reading weblogs as there are readers, but in my opinion the two main ones are voyeurism and information gathering. Voyeurism is easy to understand: people enjoy reading about other people. People feel that they can identify with the person behind the weblog, which makes their content more compelling. Each entry we read we get to know the writer better, we identify with them, or occasionally aspire to be like them. Cultural behaviours like our love of gossip, our interest in celebrities and reality television, and our enthusiastic consumption of biographical publications would appear to support this suggestion. The format of the weblog makes it easy to get up-to-date information about friends, people, situations and interests making them ideal for information gathering. Weblogs provide a valuable filtering function by searching out articles from lesser-known sites. In addition to this the writer may provide supplementary facts or an alternative perspective to that of the corporate media.

[tag: identity]