Men blog from Mars, Women Blog From Venus

The NITLE conducted a census on bloggers, to determine the breakdown of the way in which bloggers blog. It confirms one of my long held suspicions about the way blogging breaks down, and even explains why I read more female bloggers than male ones.

The survey shows that, in terms of the use of one's journaling space, men are far more likely to be political commentators, women are somewhat more likely to be personal diarists. This makes intuitive sense to me for many reasons, not the least of which is that I have an almost instinctive feeling that I need to address political issues, and that this comes from the small piece of me that cares who the alpha male is. The early days of my blog were split between personal and news issues, but leaning more heavily towards the news. Introspection does not come easily for men... or does it? I only have an in-depth sampling of one on that count. I've never had too much trouble finding things to dine on ashes about, but formulating the dark clouds and sunrays of one's mind into essay form came far less naturally to me, when I began doing this.

I know there are exceptions to every rule. Irina's The Ignoble Experiment deftly combines her middle eastern studies and philosophical musings with personal reflection, for example. Phillip writes convincingly about a life lived, not a Colmes and Hannity agreed or disagreed with. And I've consciously tried to be one of the exceptions myself. If I find diarists (usually) more interesting, why not seek to be what I admire? It risks being a little self-indulgent, I suppose. I know that I am not important enough in the scheme of things to think that the journal of an expository essay-exhibitionist does not approach vanity. But then, I know what I read in a diarist's journal is more interesting than the societal prescriptions of a million mediocre news bloggers' journals - how many times and in different ways can you read that "liberals" or "fundamentalists" are screwing up the world? So am I writing for readers, or for myself?

Both, I guess. I distill my own thoughts more clearly now, in ways that allow me to better understand who I am. My kids may someday read some of what is written here, and I write in part for them. And I write to entertain you too. :-)

One of my favourite reads ever is St. Augustine's Confessions, which was probably the first diaryblog-like writing in the world's history. He takes us intimate into the life of an ordinary man who rose to become a great man, and took all of his baggage, his sorrows, his shame, his joys, with him on the road to that greatness. Letting people in helps them to see themselves. Vanity? Perhaps. But diarists, like St. Augustine did so inimitably, do a great service to their readers in providing that reflection.