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Survey Shows More Women Blogging Than Men

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thu Aug 30, 2007 08:41 PM
from the ladies-choice dept.
The Internet IT
thefickler writes "The blogosphere has hit the mainstream, according to a new survey, which reveals that 80% of Americans know what a blog is, 50% regularly visit blogs, and 8% publish their own blog. The survey also reveals that more women than men are bloggers, with 20% of American women who have visited blogs having their own versus 14% of men."
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Submission: Survey: more women blogging than men by thefickler (1030556)
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  • they always talked more.

  • figures (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:43PM (#20419567)
    Chicks are all "yap yap yap" and dudes are like "why don't you go write in your blog, I'm trying to play Xbox".

  • That's Really Funny (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So one in ten people who knows what a blog is, HAS a blog.

    That's too many blogs.

    • I don't believe the stats, at all (Score:4, Insightful)

      by JonTurner (178845) on Thursday August 30 2007, @09:32PM (#20419973) Journal
      I call total bullshit on these statistics.
      8% write their own blogs? Twenty million people?!? Impossible. No way, no how. Now maybe, just maybe 8% of some select subclass of internet users (e.g. 8% of people who spend more than 4 hours/day on the internet, have a college education, a median income greater than $####, own at least one foreign-made car, read WIred magazine, etc.) write blogs, but to think that many ordinary Americans are writing their own blogs... nope. I don't buy it.

      And if you doubt this for one moment, just try to remember the last time you stood in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles. See how silly it seems thinking 4/5 of them could explain what a blog is? And to think nearly 1/10 writes their own? Nyet.

      • ... a median income greater than $####, ...
        Could you repost that, but this time expand the column so we can see the entire number?
         
      • Depends on what you count as a blog. I could easily believe nearly 1/10 people have used the "blog" feature on MySpace.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by porcupine8 (816071)
            Why wouldn't that count as a blog? Since when does "blog" mean anything other than "web log," or "online log of your daily thoughts and activities?" Who decided that an online journal must meet some minimum requirement of eliteness to qualify as a "blog"??

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by porcupine8 (816071)
        Remember that "a blog" does not mean "a well-known blog" or "a blog that gets a lot of hits" or "a blog anyone but my three friends reads" or even "a blog that ANYONE reads." It just means any blog you write in - which includes everyone on LiveJournal and its children, plus the millions more on MySpace who use the blog function on there, plus blogger, wordpress, etc... 8% doesn't seem off at all to me. Hell, my MOM, who knows very little about computers, has a blog on 360.yahoo.com that she writes in once a

  • I'd belive the stats (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BWJones (18351) * on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:44PM (#20419585) Homepage Journal
    These stats seem to hold up with what i am seeing on the stats for Jonesblog [utah.edu] in that the majority of readers seem to be women looking for recipes [utah.edu] , pictures of animals [utah.edu] and interestingly, travel [utah.edu] while the majority of searches from males tend to be stuff like guns [utah.edu] , airplanes [utah.edu], cars [utah.edu] and an inordinate amount of traffic searching for hot women that somehow hit this page [utah.edu]. Stereotypes are sad, but true I suppose in some areas. The interesting thing that really surprised me was that I had to include a notice in my FAQ [utah.edu] on my "status" as I've had more than one unsolicited request for a date from visitors to the blog.

    • Re:I'd belive the stats (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Skadet (528657) on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:51PM (#20419651) Homepage
      I think an interesting follow-up question is, "does more talking in real life equate to more blogging?". Sure there's correlation -- I think most of us will agree that women talk more than men -- but I wonder if the drive is similar between the two. . . In other words, does the mechanism that makes women blabber on also compel them to blog more? If so, what is that mechanism?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by bkr1_2k (237627)
        I think you'll find that more women keep "diaries" than men, which would be a better correlation. Most of the women I know that "blog" are actually treating it as an online diary that happens to get feedback from other people occasionally. Society has taught women to write down their secrets and feelings for a long time. Now that sites like myspace, facebook, livejournal, etc. have become popular it's no surprise that women are transitioning from private hard-copy diaries to semi-private online diaries.
    • Stereotypes are arbitrarily decided; they have their roots in some truth somewhere.
    • "while the majority of searches from males tend to be stuff like guns , airplanes , cars and an inordinate amount of traffic searching for hot women"

      Not especially in that order I guess?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by GuitarKat (1150077)
      Well, those stats are well done, but I guess I'm not the usual woman. I don't look for recipies and I don't look for animals. I suppose travel would be the remotely closest thing I could see myself looking for.

      I actually get feeds from /., Homestar Runner, Penny Arcade Comic feeds, Kawaii Not feeds, some poltical journals (mostly socialist/liberal) and stuff from my friends and ThinkGeek on their new products up on the store.

      You are right, BWJones, stereotypes are depressing. And no, sorry guys, I don't hav

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Weedlekin (836313)
        "E.g., consider this "most insects have 6 legs, spiders are insects, therefore spiders have 6 legs." The fallacy there is the implied extrapolation from "most" (i.e., a variant of "some") to "all", not the "most insects have 6 legs" premise."

        The fallacy is the statement about spiders being insects. They're chelicerates, which is a distinct arthropod sub-phylum that's much older, and genetically distinct from the hexapods (which includes insects and other six legged arthropods such as diplura). As the name "
  • that any article summary mentioning the word "blogosphere" resultants in your average slashdot reader to be 79.993093 more likely not to RTFA because the term "blogosphere" was mentioned. Seriously. Kill it with fire. I hate the word.
    • "79.993093 more likely"

      Like in, almost eighty more people?

      Or eighty times as many people?

      Or eighty percent more?

      Or eighty million times more?

    • Re:Survey also shows... (Score:5, Funny)

      by arth1 (260657) on Thursday August 30 2007, @10:38PM (#20420445) Homepage Journal

      that any article summary mentioning the word "blogosphere" resultants in your average slashdot reader to be 79.993093 more likely not to RTFA because the term "blogosphere" was mentioned. Seriously. Kill it with fire. I hate the word.

      Yes, let the word "blogoshphere" become a roadkill on the information superhighway, for the synergetic well-being of all netizens!

      Regards,
      --
      *Art

  • Good... (Score:5, Funny)

    by sgant (178166) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `tnagsk'> on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:49PM (#20419633) Homepage Journal
    Then hopefully it will STOP THEIR YAPPING all the time! Damn broads....

    Hang on, my wife is having me go wash the dishes....
  • 100% of people who took this survey are likely to answer surveys, but how many people who don't answer surveys are likely to have blogs hmm?

  • Does myspace count as blogging? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by catbutt (469582) on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:57PM (#20419715)
    Just curious.
    • Only if you're 14.

      • Re:Does myspace count as blogging? (Score:5, Funny)

        by catbutt (469582) on Thursday August 30 2007, @11:54PM (#20420913)

        Of course the fact that women equal or outnumber men doing ANYTHING online in 2007 is pretty much a nonissue anyway.
        Well I just read about a different survey that concluded that over 50% of people on slashdot are women. I don't know about you, but I found that number rather surprising.

        Ok, I made that up.

        • Well I just read about a different survey that concluded that over 50% of people on slashdot are women. I don't know about you, but I found that number rather surprising.

          I'd believe it if the sample size was 2.

  • What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ZorbaTHut (126196) on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:57PM (#20419717) Homepage

    The survey also revealed that more women than men are bloggers, with 20% of American women who have visited blogs having their own versus 14% of men.
    That does not prove what they're trying to indicate at all. That indicates "women who read blogs are more likely to have one of their own". It doesn't say squat about how many women actually have blogs - if there's five women out there who read blogs, and 100 men, then that's one female-run blog and 14 male-run blogs.

    Come on, guys. Get your facts straight.

  • Now for some more stats please. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Uno Due Tre (1150029) on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:58PM (#20419725) Homepage
    What percentage of blogs are actually READ with a break-down of male/female? I think blogs by women who post a hot picture of themselves would possibly be a bit overrepresented. I know a few nerds who read a chick's blog just because she also happens to be a swimsuit model. Personally, I would prefer to read a blog that was actually interesting.

    • I know a few nerds who read a chick's blog just because she also happens to be a swimsuit model.
      Yeah, right. And I'm guessing that would also be the same percentage who subscribe to Playboy "for the articles." (rolls eyes)

  • Summary says most women are men? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nymz (905908) on Thursday August 30 2007, @08:59PM (#20419727) Journal
    What an insensitive summary, but I guess that's to be expected from the patriarchal and male-dominated Slashdot blog. So for the last time you unenlightend masoginists, Bloggers are male, and Bloghers [blogher.org] are female. Sheesh.

  • Wrong conclusion (Score:5, Insightful)

    by panaceaa (205396) on Thursday August 30 2007, @09:00PM (#20419743) Homepage Journal
    The body of the article states:

    "The survey also revealed that more women than men are bloggers, with 20% of American women who have visited blogs having their own versus 14 % of men."

    This does not equate to more blogger being women. If there are twice the number of males reading blogs than females, then given the above ratio, 40% more men would be blogging than women. Unfortunately this article doesn't tell us the number of males reading blogs versus females, so we can't draw any conclusion either way. And I'd guess that there's more men reading blogs based on my use of Slashdot and Digg, but I really have no broad data to back me up.

    The only thing this survey shows is that of blog readers who fill out surveys, females tend to blog more than males. And even then, the margin of error on a population size of 10,000,000 bloggers with their 1,000 user sample size is 3.1%. So the statistic is nearly meaningless ...

  • " Survey Shows More Women Blogging Than Men"

    On the intenet, men are men, women are men, and little kids are fbi agents.

    ... or dogs.

  • ... people who say "blogosphere".

    Damn hippies.

  • Where does one draw a line between blog and "online diary"? I didn't notice a definition when I skimmed TFA. I would think that things like LJ skew the results quite a bit, since lots of teens are liable to hit up these sites and the post to them every once in a blue moon.

  • Behind the counter (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tribbin (565963) on Thursday August 30 2007, @09:34PM (#20419985) Homepage
    Very nice reading; a girl who in an entertaining way writes about her frustrations at Walmart.

    http://www.behindthecounter.com/ [behindthecounter.com]

    Just stumbled across it and like to share it.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Tribbin (565963)
        Customer returns bed; wants a bigger one. The blogger sais that this is no problem.
        Customer does not want to pay the extra amount. The blogger sais that this is a problem.
        I don't see how you can not agree with her.

        And if you can't identify with her frustrations then you have not worked in horeca, gasstations, do-it-yourself stores or anything similar where you have to serve customers in all their variaty. They are ordinary frustrations that you can not show in your profession, but talk about with your frien

  • Statistics (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tribbin (565963) on Thursday August 30 2007, @09:42PM (#20420039) Homepage
    73.3 percent of all statistics are made up.

  • Surprising! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tribbin (565963) on Thursday August 30 2007, @09:48PM (#20420089) Homepage
    Surprising how many men have blogs, considering that the ratio of men/women keeping diaries is, say 1/9.

  • Another survey confirms (Score:3, Funny)

    by theendlessnow (516149) * on Thursday August 30 2007, @10:23PM (#20420337)
    Men are less likely to become pregnant than women.

    You heard it here first!

    Come on! Did somebody really have to do a survey to figure this one out?

  • 80% know what a blog is? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pclminion (145572) on Friday August 31 2007, @12:14AM (#20421021)

    I highly doubt it. Let me guess -- they conducted this survey ON THE INTERNET. So their sample is limited to exactly the same group of people who would probably know what a blog is. Somebody needs to re-take basic statistics...

    I could be wrong -- I can't RTFA because it's Slashdotted.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by kripkenstein (913150)

      If the low intellectual tone of some of the comments in this thread are anything to go by, I would say that there are virtually no women using Slashdot, and to be honest, I can see why...
      I haven't seen any such comments, simply because I browse at +5. I recommend other try it as well :)

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