Monday, June 25, 2007

The Blogging Dinner Table

Brian Grenier did an interesting informal survey of the edublogosphere, the results of which are quite interesting.

I was really struck by the age graph with the most respondents falling in the 35-50 year old range. Perhaps because that's me, and I like being trendy (well, not really).

Brian asks, "Though I am curious as to why the 18-30 year old segment is not better represented?"

I think the answer is that they're all on FaceBook and MySpace.

I did a interview with a twentysomething the other day, and thought her online habits were somewhat revealing. Granted, this was one person. She has FaceBook up all day long and reads a few of her friends' blogs, so that she can keep in touch. I would say the main point of her Internet usage is to stay connected in her personal life.

I remember way back to my twenties and I was much more interested in my friends and meeting new people than in professional development. FaceBook would have been great.

Carolyn commented in my interview post,
I try to do an informal survey of students when I go to campuses to deliver orientations to our online courses. The big three for our students are Facebook (almost every student has an account), chat and text messaging on mobile phones. The big driver for our students seems to be the need to stay connected with friends.

As I've, ahem, matured and married and had children, my social needs are much less in the forefront. But my need and desire for professional connection and professional development have certainly grown. And blogging fits that need. Blogging fills a gap I didn't even know I had.

It's a web 2.0 professional maturity lifecycle model.

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