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Are Blogging and Unemployment Related?

Posted by chrisd on from the bloggers-blogging-about-bloggers-blogging dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The Washington Post is really nice with bloggers. Yesterday, it carried an article named "Free Speech -- Virtually," or "Legal Constraints on Web Journals Surprise Many 'Bloggers'". Today, Cynthia L. Webb focuses on an hypothesis from Chris Gulker, which he exposed in a column published by The Independent, "The View from Silicon Valley: Bloggers come in from the cold." As said Chris Gulker, "Many of us are Webloggers 'bloggers' for short. It would be interesting to see if there's a correlation between the meteoric rise of blogging, the practice of keeping a frequently-updated online journal, and the rise of unemployment in Silicon Valley and other tech corridors. Check this column for a summary or the original article for more details."

2 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Well, duh by Jeremiah+Blatz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was employed, I didn't have anything like the time to blog. Once I was laid off, I posted often. Now that I have some freelance work, I post less.

    There are certainly counterexamples. I know some folks who find it therapeutic, so they make time to blog. For them, it's a journal that they can selectively share. However, I have certainly witnessed this correlation among my friends.

  2. There is no relation... by dagg · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I don't think there is any relation. Sure, both are currently on the rise, but there is no direct cause and effect. We have unemployment right now because of 9/11, GWB, Republicans, Democrats, the Tech Bubble, Overinflated Stocks, and Strawberry Shortcake Returning. Ok, the last item is just a coincidence (the others are not coincidence :)).

    So why is blogging popular? I think it's the latest "not it your face" communication. First was snail mail, then came the phone, then e-mail, and IM. Whenever I communicate with you using one of those methods, I assume that *you* must be interested. But the problem is, how do I know if you are interested about a particular topic that I may want to rant about? I could just spam you with every idea in my head... or I can start a blog. A blog is an extremely passive communication system. If you are interested, just come on back and read my rants. If you are not interested, just don't come back.

    Unemployment will come and go. And blogging? Well... the time for blogging has just come. It's the next step.

    --
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