Probably should answer my own questions:
1. I consider my blog to be about the intersection of personal and professional life.
2. This is my life. The blog gives me an opportunity to reflect on it and get feedback from others.
3. I don't blog about my field/research because then I'd be much easier for people in my field to find out. 
I don't want people who I work with to so easily be able to find out about my personal life (although if they did I'd not be devestated).
4. I do read blogs that discuss research in my field and comment under a different identity. I read about social issues but don't comment much. I like to read about others' personal/professional issues -- I'm a voyeur at heart. (fits with my research, really)
5. I commented on this in the main entry. And no doubt about it, I'm a grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl! 
I don't know about it being a gender thing - it's definitely a social thing though - I'm a guy and my blog is fairly not-impersonal (though I'm still undergradding)...I don't know, I guess in western culture your analysis sounds pretty correct ...
And in response to the questions (I pressed submit almost by accident before I got a chance to answer 1-5)
1. My blog's about my personal life, my professional (aka student) life, and about some college stuff.
2. Because it's nice to chat to other people about these things, and to have people respond to them.
3. I don't think I rant on very well about social issues or about personal misfortunes.
4. I like to comment on friends' blogs, whatever the content - but with regards to other blogs I'm generally out of my depth when it comes to academic blogs, and amn't really very good at giving personal advice.
5. Well I answered that in the other comment
Well, I'm more of a lurker, but I'll answer for the "commenter" category:
1. Because I'm lazy. But I'm thinking about taking the plunge....
2. I would probably do anonymous personal blogging, much like the blogs I read. I'd probably comment a lot on how gender and culture does/doesn't affect my job (I'm a woman in a very male-dominated field with a strong perceived culture of a certain sort that I don't always fit into).
3. See above. I rarely comment though, again because I'm lazy. But I love to read about the personal lives of other academics, if only to reassure myself that I'm not crazy. I can get technical stuff from many other sources (mailing lists, etc); my blog-reading is all about the personal stuff. It's like a community that I don't have IRL.
4. Maybe...wouldn't surprise me.
Interesting discussion! Thanks for bringing it up!
1. My blog is almost entirely personal, being about my relationships and sex life. I am an attorney and former academic, but I already have enough outlets to talk about that crap.
2. I blog as I blog because I have found an audience for it. I like the attention and the interaction: they make the activity fulfilling.
3. I don't blog about my work, politics, religion, or other serious issues because (a) I already have outlets to discuss that stuff, and (b) the moment I profess a stance on such things it filters my readers' views on everything else I write.
4. I do not read political blogs or news blogs - I get that info elsewhere. Aside from that my favorites tend to be mix of personal and professional, but most are written by women.
5. I do not think that what gets blogged is a gender issue. I think socio-economic class, age, and race, are far bigger forces. Bloggers are writers - we all write for a hobby and many of us write, in part, for a living. "Personal" bloggers seem to want emotional validation, while "informational" bloggers seem to want intellectual validation. I don't think you can fairly chalk the pursuit of those two different goals to gender. And I'm a male.
I don't think it's necessarily true that male academic bloggers don't address personal issues as much.
My answers
1. The content of my blog is mostly quotidian details of my life, higher education in America, and occasionally early modern British literature and culture.
2. I blog what I blog because my head would explode if I didn't.
3. I am somewhat reticent about certain things on campus because of potential professional backlash: see my recent post on our chancellor resigning.
4. I read all kinds of blog, but I do like the ones that mix the personal with the professional.
5. I don't think it's a gender issue.
Answering the Questions (so glad you did this )
1. My blog thinks about balancing one's academic and non-academic identities and issues surrounding being a single female professor.
2. I blog what I do because I like turning things I'm thinking about into narratives that will be seen by an audience. Also, I like the community of readers that I have and I like to entertain them and to have conversations with them about the things I'm thinking about.
3. My blog is very spontaneous and so I don't have much luck with responding to Things Happening in the World. Also, I don't tend to blog specifically about my field/research because that feels more "private" to me and would also be more identifying than the things I do blog about. I don't tend to blog about social issues because I'm apathetic No, I don't blog about those because many others out there do it better - I've got my own niche which doesn't include serious or substantive things
4. I tend to gravitate toward blogs that are similar in tone to my own but I read other blogs as well. It's rare that I comment on blogs that are very different from mine, but my comments on others' blogs do tend to be about issues that I don't blog about myself.
5. Yes (though I'm sure there are other factors too). I think one reason why female bloggers may tend to explore personal issues more frequently is because women still struggle with balancing the personal and the professional in a way that men don't, and so perhaps that is what draws female academic bloggers to blogging - it's kind of like a virtual consciousness-raising meeting, where you can be part of a community that tells you you're not crazy for feeling stressed out or pulled in different directions. Also, the pseudonymity means you can say these things without paying for them with a loss of professional authority amongst colleagues.
(sorry this is so long-winded - I can't say anything briefly today)
Phew, profgrrrrl, be careful what you ask for! Now you have to slog through all this...
1. Personal life (but rarely about family), much about professional life, but not about my field. Damn, I do that all day long, why would I do it on my blog? I'd like to blog more about social issues, but I'd feel like my writing would have to be much better structured and points better argued, so I don't do it much.
2. Super G asks me if I change my content in thinking about my readers...Of course I do. I never kept a journal because I didn't care about what I have to say--writing is for other people to see (except grocery lists...)
3. Like I said, I don't want to have to think TOO much about my argument structure. Besides, I don't want to out myself too much (probably a lost cause), and I don't want my family to EVER come across my blog and get mad. Solution: don't write about them.
4. I read political blogs, and other personal (non-academic) blogs. But mostly people I know, or friends of friends. I could read more, but then I'd never do work (as opposed to sometimes). I also check out a number of photoblogs.
5. I'm female, and I've read personal male blogs, but not too many personal academic-male blogs. Perhaps it's just started out this way--as a community primarily of women--but it'll branch out eventually. Not sure.
Great idea to put these questions...
1. Intersection of personal & professional -- more about interpersonal struggles, process issues (not about academic content).
2. Lots of reasons. One is to feel connected and dialogue with other academics, because I don't necessarily feel like I can speak this freely with all of my colleagues. I feel validated as a professional by my blog colleagues, which is important to my as I try to shift my identity from grad student to professor. I also blog to keep some long distance friends / family up to date on my life.
3. I do not blog on "heavier" academic content, because I want to write about those issues in other arenas. By the time I am blogging, I want to switch my brain over.
4. I read and comment in other blogs that are more personal because I know those people in "real life," otherwise, I think I comment on blogs that are similar to mine. Except Manolo's shoe blog. I just comment on that one sometimes because it makes me feel cool.
5. YES! I thought the same thing the Dr. Crazy noticed, but I have never put it in a blog post or a comment.
p.s. I'm a female. I think I was supposed to indicate this?
You might want to drop by Sea Fever, specifically these posts:
http://seafever.blogs.com/
seafev...ing_projec.html
and
http://seafever.blogs.com/
seafev...arch_of_bl.html
She's right up your alley here.
Answering for myself:
1. My weblog (I dislike the word "blog," can't figure out why) is about my personal and professional life. But it is not a narrative of either; see further answers.
2. I tend to write about the things that come up in a day which I want to share, but can't for whatever reason. Something I see which gets me thinking, some issue that my non-geek friends glaze over when I start talking about, whatever. Also, I do a very small bit of journalism, and I like having a place to publish the bits which get chopped due to length constraints.
3. I don't really think there are things I don't write about. Well, there are, but in general I just don't share stuff which I don't think belongs in "general public." I don't disguise my identity or location, so I don't write about things likely to come back and bite me.
4. I read weblogs which are different from mine, but I am more likely to comment in one which is like mine. I don't read political/news weblogs; the more professional ones (I guess the more "un-personal" ones) tend to be geeky ones about software design, web design, engineering, etc.
5. I do think there are different voices on male weblogs vs. female weblogs, in general, but I have found exceptions in both directions. I think it might be related to prior experience with other journals (i.e. paper ones) or other expressive modes, which might then be a gender issue, but I don't have data to argue that point. (I think it's relatively clear that I'm male - you'd pegged me as such earlier, anyway - but I'll repeat it just to be clear.)
You probably know some of these things about me already, but FWIW:
1. My life - mostly the conjunction between personal and professional life, including stuff about teaching, some stuff about my research - not the specific content so much as the process - how does one actually go about doing this? - and some more personal stuff. Hard to separate these things, in the same way I find it hard to separate work/life IRL.
2. Because I moved to this new job and, partly because I didn't know many people here, started reading other people's blogs, with which I could really identify, and I wanted to join in the conversation. I feel like the conversation was already going on when I arrived and it looked really cool and I wanted to take part.
3. I don't generally blog about social issues/politics (though I will occasionally, as I feel they affect me personally), because a) I'm kind of apathetic too! (seriously, I always tell students there's a reason why I study things that happened 500+ years ago, and it's so I can ignore what's going on around me) and more seriously, b) I feel utterly unqualified to do so (again, b/c my research is so removed from the current day. I don't talk politics/social issues in the classroom much, either, b/c I feel like I'd be trading on my authority as a prof, when my actual expertise/ability in the area is nil. Then again, historians like to argue from the particular to the general, and get uncomfortable "out of field," whereas I think, say, political scientists like to learn theories and then apply them to any subject. That's not meant to be a snark - just a disciplinary difference that translates into different approaches to blogs.) And finally c) it's way too much like work, and the conversations that take place around those blogs often seem much more worked up about proving points and winning arguments than having a conversation.
4. Honestly, not really. Most of the blogs I read are somehow academically related, even if the people writing them aren't profs. The other ones I read are more explicitly personal ones, like Chez Miscarriage and Dooce, and those are such popular blogs and are about things I myself have no personal experience in, that I think my comments aren't especially useful, so I don't. (Guess that implies I must think my comments in other places are useful! Oh, the hubris! ) I will read some history blogs. Oh, and I will comment on cute cats just about anywhere.
5. Yeah, I do think it's a gender issue. For instance, and this is meant as no disrespect to George above, but I don't think of his blog as an especially personal blog - probably because of his concerns about backlash. I guess (to make a completely unprovable generalization) I kind of see personal female bloggers talking about how they feel and personal male bloggers talking about what they do. (Pseudonymous men do seem closer to women's blogs, but there are far fewer of them.) Oh, and I'm female (if t
I'm planning to write a post about this topic momentarily, but I'll also answer your questions:
1. I consider my blog to be a mixture of personal and professional. In fact, I'm unsure that I can separate the two.
2. For lots of reasons. To communicate with friends. To comment publicly about certain topics. To connect with other professionals in the field.
3. Like George, I avoid speaking about topics that might lead to professional backlash. I also felt it would be appropriate to blog less often about political topics when teaching a course on the election.
4. I don't have major preferences. I often avoid commenting in A-list blogs because it becomes kind of an echo chamber, but I read a variety of blogs and comment in many of them.
5. I don't think it's a gender issue necessarily, but I'm also uncomfortable with explicitly differentiating between "personal" and "professional." I think it has more to do with whether one's blog is pseudonymous.
I'm really not sure how I think about these questions--I tend to side with George that I can list a fair number of male bloggers who do in fact blog about the personal, but New Kid is probably also correct that male bloggers (in general) do so in a somewhat different manner. I see myself as writing about my joys and struggles as a parent and teacher, which I certainly think of as personal issues, but I would never write a post like your "Duckling into Swan" posts a short time ago (which were really interesting, btw).
1. My blog is about social issues, personal life, and professional life, in roughly that order (and I keep wanting it to be about my field too, but I'm not making enough progress on my research to say much about it).
2. I started blogging about politics as a way to draw some friends' attention to articles, and then it became more about being part of a conversation with others surrounding the election and its aftermath. I also blog about politics as a way to keep myself engaged, informed, and to help me remember articles that are interesting. I write about stuff I'm interested in and that I think other people might be interested in. In part I write about being a father and an academic because there don't seem to be too many people discussing either of those jobs much, but mostly just because I am obsessed with my kids and with being a teacher.
3. I guess I don't blog about "how I feel," to use New Kid's term even though I'm uncomfortable with it, because my blog is not a diary for my own memory but a public document about myself and what I'm thinking about (and feeling, too...). I also think very personal blog posts are tougher to write, need to be more carefully thought through, take more out of me (so I guess I'm the direct opposite of ianqui there).
4. Yes, I do, though I tend to focus on blogs that are in the ballpark of mine. I don't like strictly personal blogs by people I don't know--blogs full of nothing but what the blogger's feeling bore me, at least until I get to "know" the blogger some. If your blog was nothing but posts like the "Duckling" ones, I probably wouldn't stick around enough to feel invested enough in you to want to read those so carefully, but now that I know your blog, and it's got other stuff in it, those posts are very cool.
I comment when a comment seems worthwhile--when I can think of something witty or useful to say, when someone seems to need support and I can offer it, when I disagree with part of a post and think I can say something constructive.
5. I already said some of this at the top, I guess. I think gender plays a part in what gets blogged, sure, but there are lots of other very important factors and I resist too simple a notion of men blog one way and women blog another.
1. Yes, I'm a current blogger. It's an informal blog about my professional life as an academic, with nothing of my personal life in there. Mainly it consists of anecdotes about the day-to-day issues that come up in the usual course of my job.
2. Sometimes it's nice to be able to have an outlet to vent, without forcibly inflicting it on another human being!
Sometimes it's nice to be able to look back and have some of the incidents (which can be funny, or frustrating, or memorable in other ways) on record. I try to write well in a digestible style, and I hope sometimes I might be a bit amusing in my posts. All good practice.
3. If I want to blog about other issues (which I do) then I'll do separate blogs about them. I'd like to do a formal professional blog (or two) , and a couple of personal websites organised in a blog style (which I suppose makes them blogs). I'll manage it one day, when my job allows me sufficient free time to be able to get round to it...!
4. Yes, I like reading blogs, particularly other academic blogs. It's interesting to see how other people view issues that I have to deal with, from the perspectives of being in a different country maybe, or being in a different field. In any case, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of computing academic blogs, the computing blogs (which I also enjoy) tend to be technical rather than about the academic side of life.
5. I suppose there might be a correlation. I'm not sure whether my gender is obvious or not from my blog, but I prefer to attempt to keep it anonymous.
1. I write about my emotions. I didn't inteded it but when I look at my entries most of them are about myself being annoyed.
2. I blog because I like reading other blogs so much. And I sould practise communicating in English.
3. Other issues would make it clear where I am. I am paranoid, so I don't want anybody to know where wannabephd is.
4. I read two blogs related to my field regularly. But I never comment there. In fact, nobody ever comments there.
And I comment (and sometimes blog) with blogs in my native language whose bloggers are in the same city as I am.
5. I am female and I think women blog more. At least more stuff I am interested in.
Just to add one point: I've had a looming family crisis most of the semester that I've only alluded to on my blog, but which I really wanted to post about (I think that was pretty obvious to regular readers). If I had done so, that post would have been very much a (series of) personal "how I feel" post(s). I did not because my blog is not pseudonymous and some of my family reads my blog (as do some of my students), and it was therefore something that I simply couldn't write about in that space. So why isn't my blog pseudonymous? Mainly because it never even occurred to me when I started it to make it so--I never expected to have an audience beyond my friends and my wife. But I also like to have a space where my family, students, and acquaintances can see what I'm thinking about and know it's me. And if my blog were pseudonymous, I wouldn't be able to post pictures of my daughters, which I like to do. Besides, I would never be able to keep my identity secret for long.
1.It's mostly about books I read, movies I see, music I listen to, etc. I suppose this makes it about my field/research, since the only "research" I do is read books, listen to music etc; but I don't think my blog writing is in itself "professional" (though I often mine it later for things I can make into professional writing).
2.Because the exercize of forcing myself to write about stuff makes me feel better (since I am only not depressed when I get writing done), and since in the writing I discover things I would never have thought of otherwise.
3.My personal life is totally boring -- if I feel that way, other people will only find it even more so. I may be a narcissist, but there are limits.
4.I like to read many different kinds of blogs -- anybody who has an interesting taste or sensibility. A sense of someone else's sensibility is what I look for. I only comment rarely (and I don't allow comments on my own blog, since I don't really care to argue with people about what I have written).
5.Hard to say. I'm male, obviously. I try to resist & avoid stereotypes about women being more in touch with their emotions, etc, which is what I fear most commentary on gender differences in blogs comes down to.
Yeah, there definitely is a danger of perpetuating the women/emotion men/not emotion thing in the commentary on gender difference, which I don't mean to subscribe to (even though my previous comment definitely suggests that!). I do think Crazy's point about women occupying a different professional space than men is a good one (not that one or the other space is better/worse/easier/harder, just that they're different). And perhaps the real difference is, as some have suggested, pseudonymity vs. real life identity. But if that's the case, why does it seem to me that there are more women than men blogging pseudonymously?
Hi Profgrrrrl,
I'm a blogger (male), and have no secret identity
1. My blog is mostly professional. if and when the personal does intrude, it is mostly on a whim, or when a personal note relates to something in my professional life (what childhood experience influenced my thoughts about an area, etc..)
2. I think the 'head exploding' comment by George fits me well. I like talking about my field, and the meta questions surrounding it; I used to have endless 3 am discussions in grad school, or at conference dinners, and so this blog is another avenue for airing out my thoughts.
3. Although I am also a politics junkie, I feel that there are enough people with enough poltiical opinions out there, and there is nothing that qualifies me to be any more informed than anyone else (not being a citizen and till recently, not even a permanent resident, also made me somewhat over-cautious, since I don't blog anonymously). Working at a company also makes me feel a bit more constrained: in retrospect, maybe I should have started blogging anonymously, but then it never occurred to me then . As for personal matters, it's just not my thing ! I come from the reserved faux-British school of thought on public displays of emotion.
4. Well yes, of course . I read a ton, and comment occasionally. I read all kinds of blogs (using them as my primary source of information on a variety of topics: politics/science/music/arts/sports/etc..
As far as commenting goes, I often feel the urge to commment, but if I see 100 comments on a page anyway, I hesitate because a) I have to figure out if what I am about to say is original, and b) I am certain the blogger won't see my commment anyway.
The topics usually are politics/academic concerns/algorithms (my area of research).
5. It is probably true that blogs that address the "personal space" are overwhelmingly female (and being pseudonymous is a natural way of protecting oneself I imagine). However, I don't think it is true that female authored blogs are personal in nature. You mentioned Crooked Timber: I can think of many other female-authored blogs that are no different from male-authored blogs.
Another reason for anonymity can come from being pre-tenure, female or not, personal or not .
I don't know if it's true that women are more likely to blog on personal #2. I am. It *feels* true, but then I can also think of a number of men's pseudonymous blogs that do the same. Not as many, but that's hardly scientific...
Anyway, if it's true, I would hypothesize that there are two contributing factors. One, what women think privately is still sort of taboo, or at least feels taboo. Like, for instance, in the mom-world, there are all these recent books about what it's "really" like to be a mother, and even though there are a ton of books like this, each of them *feels* new and important, especially when you first have kids, because socially there are all these messages about how motherhood is "wonderful" and "fulfilling" and "the most important job ever" and women who are "bad mothers" are "monstrous" and "unnatural," so when you have feelings like wanting to hit your kid or if you yell at him or say mean things, then you feel like a bad person, and admitting that you do that kind of stuff is so freeing to both yourself and other moms, who also do those kinds of things and are afraid to admit it too.
Two, I do think it is still true that women are the canaries in the professional coal mine. A lot of men feel the pressure of the double standards and unarticulated hypocrisies too, but I think that women may be more likely to suffer a sense of "identity" crisis, over work issues particularly (but not excusively). Our collective social sense of the relative roles of individuals/family/work/friends etc. is, I think, changing fairly rapidly, and I think this change is, culturally at least, perceived as more radical for women than it is for men.
1. My blog is about my personal life, in both definitions of it (selected portions only, though).
2. I blog for a number of reasons. Writing things just for myself doesn't end up working well -- I end up echoing myself, usually negatively. This gets me a bit more space to think things out. The feedback is also nice, and useful for giving me another point of view -- and was most wonderful this spring, say.
I blog some things because they're sort of silly community-ish -- quizzes, random stories. I put up photos because (a) I adore my cats or (b) I think this is a good photo for some reason. Other things, it's either to think out in words (clears the thoughts up) or just to get out of my head. Sometimes I just need a break from work.
3. I don't blog about my friends because I think it's unfair; I try, also, not to blog too much about my family. I don't blog much about political issues because I have another venue I do that on.
4. I read all sorts of blogs. I read a number of political ones (usually for other views or other arguments to support mine), but mostly the mostly personal ones. What is most important to me is the quality of writing -- I read about dooce's issues with constipation not because I think poop is the coolest topic ever.
5. Yes. I think there is a gender difference. See the earlier discussions about pseudonymity in blogging.
1) It's not really "about" anything. It's just random life crap. That could be professional, personal, or social.
2) Venting. Spewing it on virtual paper saves a ranting phone call to my friend, so is so very tired after years of hearing me vent. After venting, it's more like random snippets that I think some people may find interesting. The rest is just nonsense.
3) The only things I won't blog about are things that, if written, would mess with other people. For instance, if you read my blog you know about this "Voldemort" person. I have no problem writing personal posts about this relationship, the issues therein, etc, except for the fact that there's no way I could anonymize it, and there would be legal implications. I don't vent heavily (or specifically) about clients because potentially pissing off a client is a bad thing. I don't write a lot about social issues because I'm simply not articulate enough to do it well.
4) My blogroll represents a diverse bunch of folks, and the blogs are all of a professional/personal mix. I don't like to read all politics, or all personal, or all [insert something else]. I like to read the blogs of people who, if we all lived in one city, I'd probably either hang out with, occasionally call for coffee, or strike up a pleasant chat on the street. Just, I don't know...regular people.
5) I don't have the foggiest idea. I think that Scrivener's blog is way more personal than mine (he's a boy, I'm a girl), but he also has a whole personal life with lovely kids and a wife and all that. I have cats. In my blogroll, I don't really see a lot of difference, but it may also be because I have a small, select list of blogs I really like, and those blogs don't tend toward the very personal type, anyway. Oh, I'm going with definition #2 of personal, in this case.
I'm a commenter:
1) I've toyed with the idea of blogging, but I'm not sure how to focus it. Is comment posting a gateway drug?
2) Well, I've thought about professional (no one in my field has a weblog, and I'm a little dubious about the broader set of people who post on topics in my area), I've thought about personal mixed with thoughts on academic life. I'm not sure if I find my personal voice very interesting, so I'm not sure I want to do this.
3) I started reading political ones. At some point I stumbled into yours and the broader world of academic weblogs. At first I only found this world of womens' weblogs. Now I see a few (non-pseudonymous) men's blogs, but I don't find them as engaging, maybe because they are less revealing. I have mixed feelings about reading the navel-gazing and (to me) often overwrought discussions in this community, yet I'm fascinated and find myself coming back.I think my favorite male blog with a personal flavor is unfogged. Those guys remind me of my geeky friends from high school. I'm no where near as clever as they are, so I couldn't do that myself.
4) I think there's a huge difference in what men and women write. I think it's partly different based on how men and women socialize. I get the impression that women thrown together will get right down to intimate discussions pretty quickly. Most of my male friends I do things with - bike, run, drink, there's a focus.
1. Stuff I find interesting, cool, silly, frustrating, or all of the above; some professional, some personal, mostly random.
2. My professional persona wants to say something about service to the community (posting conference deadlines, job opportunities, etc.), but more honestly, it's primarily a way to get on stage and say "Hey everybody look at me! Aren't I clever?", keep myself visible in my research community (almost the same thing), share silly and/or frustrating things with friends, and practice writing.
3. I blog under my real name, so there is lots of stuff, both (semi-)professional and personal, that I don't (and shouldn't) feel comfortable writing about. Even if I were anonymous, writing about personal stuff would be hard. I'm much more comfortable talking face to face (and that only after years of effort).
4. I read WAY too many blogs, but the only ones I read every day are by academics talking about their real lives or their academic lives. Even if I'm not commenting, I'm usually saying "yeah! yeah! been there! done that!" The girl stuff's hard to identify with sometimes, cause, well, I'm a guy, but it's definitely enlightening. My wife reads a lot of the same blogs, too—She's a big fan of Dr.B—and that gives us lots of interesting things to talk about.
5. Definitely! I think your hunch is right on target. The gender differences are both fascinating and frustrating. (No, goddammit, I am NOT from Mars!)
1. My blog is primarily professional, with some 'fun' stuff thrown in. The fun stuff is personal, but not in the sense of family or 'private' matters.
2. I do my blog primarily to a) make contact with other people who share my interests, b) provide some resources (a resource for learners about the subjects I'm interested in), c) test my ideas, and learn a thing or two myself.
3. Because they're private. And: my mom reads my blog.
4. I do read and comment on some more anonymous/journal types of blogs, a little. And mainly for fun.
5. I don't know if it's a gender issue.
I might also add one contrarian point. Just as there's a taboo about talking about one's private life, there's a bit of a stigma about putting too much of one's "serious" academic interests online for everyone to see. It's declining, but I think a lot of academics (especially in the humanities) are really quite protective and private about their ideas!
How would you (briefly) define the content of your blog? (about personal life, about professional life, about your field/research, about social issues) Why do you blog what you blog?
It is about the ideas and issues and thoughts (some profound, some not) that are whirling about my head on any given day. If I don't blog them, they keep circling and drive me crazy.
Why do you not blog on these other issues?
I don't blog on personal things that involve the personal lives of other people. One of my hard-and-fast rules is that none of my friends should have to learn something about our relationship from the blog -- either we talk about it first, or I don't blog it. I also refuse to blog about the personal worries and hang-ups of these people, unless they have given me permission to make their private thoughts public. I also tend not to blog on subjects in which I have no personal experience/stake and no professional expertise.
Do you like to read and comment blogs that are different (in content) from yours? What kind and why?
Of course. There are things that I do and think about well, and then there are things that I find interesting but I couldn't blog my way out of a wet paper bag about. So it is great hearing from people who can write well about these things. I also read blogs simply because I like the people behind them, even if some days the entries aren't that fascinating in terms of my hobbies or professional interests. And then there are some blogs I visit for practical information or to get different perspectives on the news, politics, etc.
Do you think this "what gets blogged" thing is a gender issue?
I do and I don't. I do think that there are patterns to the sort of blogging people do and the gender of those bloggers, but there are also exceptions -- the men who blog as much about their kids as anything, and the women who are pretty mono-focal in their postings. I think it has more to do with whether one thinks of the blog as a personal activity or as a public service/professional activity. In the latter case, mono-blogging seems the norm.
(Which says more to me about how society wants to separate work and personal life than about gender per se, except inasmuch as women have historically not been expected to separate work identity (mother, housewife) from personal identity.)
And if it isn't entirely clear, are you male or female?
Female.
Rana
1. I started the blog to have an outlet for my dissertation process. The process is very personal. So it's a mix. Some posts are about the second century, some are about what I had for lunch.
Since I'm in religion and a religious person, there is some theology thrown in as well.
2. why blog? It's also a safe place to bitch about things (like my advisor) psuedonymously. Also, helps me figure out what I'm really thinking. I'm very reticent to share my ideas. The blog is a safe place for me to do that, before I take it into a real life conversations, which feel less safe to me.
After all, if I get a comment I don't like on a blog, I can delete it!
Kinda lame, but true.
3. I don't have anything intelligent to say about politics or social issues. I'm not that well informed.
4. I read a lot of theological blogs. They use bad historical narratives and I feel it is my duty to correct them. Groups of male seminarians who fancy themselves theologians cannot go unchecked.
I don't like reading blogs with hordes of massive quotations from things. Some such blogs (I'm thinking of a few theology blogs I read on and off) have this horrible psuedo intellectual I shall now impress you by what I've read tone that I can't stand. Honestly, if I want to read a bad academic paper, I'll grade.
5. I cannot find a theological blog, a purely theological one now, that is written by a woman. I don't know of any. They might be out there. I can't find them. And I've looked.
That may be a gender issue.
More generally, I like the observation about pseudonymous blogs and personal content.
Male weblogger:
1. I babble. Whatever comes into my head. Whatever I care about that day. So it's all of the above.
2. I have no idea. It's sort of stream-of-consciousness, tidied up a bit.
3. I don't write on things I find uninteresting.
4. There aren't many blogs like mine, and I think everyone's is unique, so by necessity, yes.
5. I don't know if gender is real on the web. I've noticed in my browsing it simply isn't a criterion.
I have noticed that only women seem to blog about shoes. I don't get it. Maybe that's a gender issue.
I don't know about the personal revelation issue, either. There are things I write about that I don't talk about much, and vice versa--it's a difference in medium. But we all have boundaries, and there are some things that I don't talk about, just as I'm sure that even the most open "female" blogger will not discuss.
It could be that males and females are equally open, but may feel invested in different ways in different topics.
There are also some gender-specific social pressures that come into play. A male who talked frankly about a sexual encounter would be considered something of a boor and an exploiter; a female risks seeming 'slutty', but doesn't have the stigma of victimizing her partner.
First, thanks for asking. I enjoy your blog, your tone or voice and the mix of person and trivial content.
1. Yes I have a blog, myComment.ebloggy.com. It is a list of my comments. I read many blogs and wanted a way to share my comments on the blogs I read.
2. This is an experiment of sorts before I start a more serious and intimate blog.
3. I have imagined many personal topics that I would like to express but always think that: no one would read them, it would be a waste of time... But my desire is growing, I will start my personal blog this weekend.
4. I read a mix of serious and trivial blogs. I stay far away from librarian blogs, two page blogs are too much.
5. It probably is a gender thing. I think most blogs are just as you described but there are always exceptions.
[male]
Cheers.
Hmm.
1) Mostly personal (by both your definitions), with some social commentary thrown in. Well, actually, mostly smartass, with some social commentary thrown in.
2)I started blogging (and commenting) as a means to begin putting thoughts down "on paper" as well as to get involved in discussions with the sorts of people I rarely have the opportunity to interact with in person. I work with a lot of intelligent people, and I have friends, but I don't have the time to "get out" as much as I used to, and certainly not the time to expand my circle across professional/geographical boundaries.
3)The only issue I consciously shy away from is professional life because 1) I don't think it's particularly compelling for others and 2) it would be the biggest risk to my anonymity (which I want to maintain not so much for my privacy but for the privacy of my kids and others I mention).
4)I don't look for any particular "type" of blog, but it seems the majority of blogs I enjoy belong to editors, writers, or professors. Most of the owners tend to be women (perhaps because of the professions?), liberal/feminist, and some display a rather liberal spirituality that tends to be similar to my own. I like the blogs I like because of the topics, the attitudes, and the level of discourse. And then, of course, there's the Manolo. But he needs no explanation.
5)I haven't really noticed a topic-gender correlation, but then, I haven't been looking. And the Scorpio Bitch is most definitely female.
This is an interesting exercise, btw.
I do agree with PZ Myers about talking about sex - while I think there is a sense for women that talking about sex is a way to challenge stereotypes and ideas about sexuality, I think this can be harder for men to do without looking like cads.
Unscientifically, while there are women who have said there's little gender difference, it seems that most of the people saying that personal (#2) blogs tend to be written by women, are women, and the people saying that men do also write personal blogs, are men. (And again - it's probably more about pseudonymity, but there are more pseudonymous women bloggers.)
Have no explanation or anything, it just struck me as weird.
I haven't read the comments to this post yet that spurred yoru comment about pseuds playing a choice but I'd like to say that as a non-pseud blogger, I think I'm probably just as open and blog just as personally as other folks.
32 comments, wow! No wonder I've not read them yet. Anyway, here's my contribution definition-wise:
#1. My blog is probably a combination of work/student stuff, freaky worries about my kids, heavy venting about stuff that bothers me from both avenues, and a lot of reflection on my past. I abandoned posts on social issues after a while. I may or may not resume that. I probably am inhibited only about blogging about my relationship with my husband. When my blog only had a few readers who I always read as well, and I knew that they could take any comments of complaint in context, I felt very open about that as well but I think it's unfair now to purge post about Brit when so many people obviously spot-read and may draw conclusions based on that. (I guess that's not a brief #1; I'll try to be more succinct on the rest!)
#2 Why do you blog what you blog? I blog for a release. Posts about society-at-large are (were) always an attempt at communication but by and large, most of my blogging is an attempt to communicate with myself.
#3 Why do you not blog on these other issues? What?
#4 Do you like to read and comment blogs that are different (in content) from yours? What kind and why? I think so. When I first began blogging, I felt very isolated because I didn't know anyone else who was a mother, blogging, and a grad student. Over time, I began to find people that fit that in some combination, but I generally don't enjoy reading "mom" blogs. I think I gravitate towards people who probably have different experiences and histories. I read mostly academic blogs. I don't like reading blogs that are issue-oriented because I enjoy getting to "know" the blogger; the personal interaction is important to me and that's another reason why I don't like to read blogs who don't allow comment or don't interact, even though I do respect that choice and have considered it myself.
#5 Do you think this "what gets blogged" thing is a gender issue? And if it isn't entirely clear, are you male or female? I am FEmale. (I think that's clear but who knows, these days.) I do think that there is a gender issue and I think a couple of stereotypical gender traits factor into it (and let me stress "stereotype" -- we all know those who transcend it): (a) women multi-task well and are probably more able to devote more time to blogging even in the face of a great deal of work; (b) women are more focused in interpersonal relationships; (c) women tend to obsess more and think about stuff that never enters a lot the minds of any male. (This stuff is basic stock material for comedy so I don't think I'm offending anyone by saying this in such a reductive fashion, but as I said, it was a generalization, and I've cer
PS I'd like to say that I was interested in what Scrivener said about personal posts needing to be carefully thought out and taking a lot out of a person. I think that this is a key dividing factor for some bloggers and how personal they're willing to go. For people who blog to vent and are not necessarily writing to an audience, faltering over posts isn't going to happen. There's no perfection in posts, no great writing, it's just there and after it's written, it's OUT and that's the important part. I'm not sure that people who don't experience this (and I think they are the majority in the blogosphere) can relate to the quickie-post mentality.
PS Okay and I'm going to shut up after this -- because for me, blogging is part of figuring out how I feel. I don't figure it out and then report it in the blog.
1. My blog is five days old. I modelled it on pseudonymous academic blogs because the format seemed loose enough to allow most stuff I'd feel like posting. But already I am not sure.
I like that idea of using blogs to make surprising connections between ideas because via your blog you brush up against ideas or contributors you wouldn't have. It would be useful for a lot of the work I do, I think. I would maybe demand a different kind of blog. Probably less anonymous.
2a. I am a sensing organism, a mind body complex. I think that I think through my body as well as my mind. In my case I've always put the two together: there's personal in my scholarship, and there's philosophizing in my everything else. Blogging offers form, a container, to hold a lot of the perceptions that don't really fit in anywhere else. It's different from a journal, though. I'm not yet sure exactly how.
And I'll tell you anything, any little truth or detail that doesn't give the game away. Anything to make the story work better.
2b. To give shape to days. To try on personas. To give me an excuse to write. To put writing before an audience. To elicit response. To enter a conversation. To connect.
5. Research should be done.
On pseudonymity: I don't care that much for my own self. Hell, at some point I'm going to take to the web for self-promoting so then you better believe I'll be non-anonymous.
I did it now for two reasons. One, it fits the genre. The kind of academic blog seems to have developed conventions. And there's something interesting about the sort of Everyman flattening-of-people-into-job-types ("Pseudonymous Professor Probably of Humanities"), and the way this universality makes our lives legible to each other and lets us learn about the anxieties that are part of the Job Description rather than the person. AND the way this universality contrasts with the minutely particular. (like what one ate for dinner, what kind of day one had...) The private is made public, and the public (role) is revealed as a kind of iron maiden filled in by many private struggles in the day-to-day...
Second reason for pseudonymity, for jobhunting CV who wants me rousing no rabbles nor associating his name with anything shadey snarky or illegal.
Hm--funny to come to this post given how my blog was mentioned for the whole dinner table to hear among colleagues today (other conversations were occuring simultaneously, so only a few really heard). But yeah...interesting to think about these questions now. Will think more about them--not wanting to answer just yet.
When I said that personal posts need to be more carefully thought out and took more out of me, I did not mean that I mapped them out ahead of time or had to know exactly how I felt before I wrote. I sometimes do think about a blog post ahead of time, usually when I'm driving, but not very often and even when I do the post rarely comes out looking the way I'd imagined it.
I guess what I mean is that for me it is pretty easy to read an article in the NYTimes or someplace, and to just spin off into a post about it. Very often I'm still figuring out the specifics of what I think as I blog, but it more or less automatically shapes itself into something that another person can understand and, hopefully, enjoy. But when I'm trying to write about something more personal, especially something intimate, those posts tend to get long and confused and I have to be more conscious about how they're shaped, whether I'm actually making a point or spinning a narrative that will make sense to someone else, whether I'm going into too much detail that anyone else will simply find boring, etc.
I almost never start a post on a "social" or "professional" issue without finishing it. I do sometimes start more deeply personal posts, write for 45 minutes, look back over it and realize that I haven't made much sense and save it to work on later and never return to it.
Or somtimes I write for an hour and look at it and realize that the post is just a cliche or completely pointless and I delete it. Fairly often I write a post about something one of my daughters said or did that was just so damned cute, and then realize that even though what they did was funny in the moment, the post is not interesting, and I just don't post it.
Whereas if I write a post in response to social issue that is fairly obvious or pointless, I tend to go ahead and post it and figure "hey I put in my two cents on that issue, who cares if it's not the best post in the world."
I'm certainly not overly worried that my posts be perfect or terribly polished, but I do try to think about an audience when I write, and all of my posts are basically spontaneous, but that's easier for me to pull off when I'm writing about less deeply personal points.
1. Why do you not have your own blog?
Time is a consideration, but more importantly, I don't think I have a clear enough subject about which I'm so focused, or engaged to warrant a blog.
2. What would you like to blog about if you had a blog?
See, there's the rub. I don't know.
3. What kind of blogs do you read? Comment on? Why?
A mix. I read blogs devoted to political and social commentary and analysis, and comment occasionally. I also read a few blogs such as this one, and again, I comment occasionally. And lastly, I read a sports blog (Boston Red Sox), and another devoted to blues guitar playing--and I comment on each.
4. Do you think this "what gets blogged" thing is a gender issue? And if it isn't entirely clear, are you male or female?
I'm male. And yes, I suspect there is a gendered component that underpins what gets blogged, and how etc. But as others have poitned out, the rules delimitting these poles aren't very clear, nor are they very hard and fast.
I recall reading a viewpoint in another discussion on this question in which the person pointed out, rightly I'd say, that men and women can have very different definitions of what it is to be "personal." If I were to write that I like to cook, and then tell you what I made last night, I think I'm being very "intimate" and "personal." But I this falls slightly short on the persona/intimate scale compared to the types of things I've read on these blogs.
Vive la difference!
I'm a female commenter/lurker, and will comment on questions 1. and 4.
1. It amazes me that anyone has the time, even post tenure. Several sites I follow with some regularity (e.g., this one) are so prolific I generally can't read all the posts, due to time. I can only conclude that either a) the blogger's (academic) job is very different from mine, or b) I am not very good or efficient at my job.
4. Similar to NK's observation, I noticed the difference between male and female respondents who indicated whether they thought there is a gender issue. These comments reminded me of a saying that I think relates well to this question: "Men and women are more different from each other than men think, and more similar to each other than women think."
1. How would you (briefly) define the content of your blog? (about personal life, about professional life, about your field/research, about social issues)
Mostly professional, though it's becoming more and more personal each week, I think,
2. Why do you blog what you blog?
I started reading some blogs and realized that even thought I liked them, they did not have enough of the kind of content I was looking for. I decided that it would be nice to at least try to create the kind of content I would be interested in reading.
3. Do you like to read and comment blogs that are different (in content) from yours? What kind and why?
Often. Otherwise, bloggig is not fun. I tend to read blogs from people in academia and in technology. I stay away from most political blogs.
4. Do you think this "what gets blogged" thing is a gender issue? And if it isn't entirely clear, are you male or female?
It's all about what you're willing to reveal. If whatgets blogged is a gendered thing, I wonder if you could look at a blog and quickly decide whether a its author is male or female. Probably not.
I am male.
I think the scrivener is describing how I might feel if I blogged. I would struggle over personal posts and then find them trivial or annoying.
I do think this comes back to how men and women socialize. Women are used to talking about these things. They do it even in brief encounters with each other, so they are used to being intimate while editing for the audience. And clearly a blog requires that, especially one that is preserving anonymity.
Maybe I'm the exception that proves the rule, but I'm a guy and I definitely see a difference in style and focus between mens' and womens' weblogs.
1. How would you (briefly) define the content of your blog? (about personal life, about professional life, about your field/research, about social issues)
I [plan to] blog mostly about professional life, though only the more generic aspects, not field-specific stuff. There may be social issues and politics occasionally. Personal musings will probably come up, but not private relationship stuff.
2. Why do you blog what you blog?
I started an academic life blog because I felt I needed some connection to other new professors. After reading a lot of those Chronicle columns it started to seem as though my concerns were very popular ones, even though young academics are often nervous about talking directly about them. So, blogging seems like a great solution. There will probably be a lot of complaining because I like making my crappy experiences into silly stories - gets it off my chest, and makes it into something not entirely negative. Oh, and I'll probably have some very frivolous stuff there too, because I like clothes even though, professionally, I'm not supposed to be interested in such things.
3. Why do you not blog on these other issues?
I don't want to share personal stuff that relates to other people I care about, though I don't mind talking about some personal stuff that only affects me. I'd like to talk about field-specific professional stuff, but it's too identifying so I won't, or I'll keep it vague. I do like talking politics (when it's not intensely frustrating), but I want to keep that to a minimum in my blog (or so I say now). That's for a couple of reasons. First, I am just so tired of it right now. Second, it easily takes up too much time. I hate writing blurted-out political stuff, and writing it well takes craft and research, and I really can't affordthat kind of time right now. And third, I prefer talking about political ideas, not real-world politicians, and discussions tend to be very politician-based these days.
4. Do you like to read and comment blogs that are different (in content) from yours? What kind and why?
I read political blogs to keep up, though I should cut down. Just recently started commenting on anything. I read friends' personal blogs to keep in touch .. and I'd be happy to read field-specific blogs but I don't right now. And I hate the word "blog" but I think it's too late to avoid it now!
5. Do you think this "what gets blogged" thing is a gender issue? And if it isn't entirely clear, are you male or female?
I'm female. Don't know about the gender issue because I haven't sampled widely enough.
Most often I feel like a sweet Vidalia onion or cake, in that I have layers, and I only allow those people I know IRL to see the outermost covering with occasional hints as to what lies beneath out of fear of being misunderstood, etc. So I’m hesitant to truly be me, yet I couldn’t imagine having a blog and not expressing my inner thoughts. I thought commenting would be satisfying (and it has been) but I find myself more and more drawn to starting my own blog, like a moth to a flame.
Reflections on the world, the interactions I have with others, interpersonal struggles, and toejam.
Blogs which present a snapshot of life. My comments are limited though to select individuals whom I feel an affinity towards…so often John Donne’s quote “no man is an island” floats through my mind and before I know it I’m commenting. In this medium I’m able to find a “unity of consciousness” that I rarely experience IRL.
As others (chuck) have expressed, I see it more as having to do “with whether one’s blog is pseudonymous”.
I find Scrivener's comments absolutely fascinating. (Is it just me?) But I think that what he's describing is probably more of a personality-related issue than gender. Am I being the annoying "let me put you in a box" lady now?! Really, I do find different blog tendencies so interesting. I post stuff sometimes that I think makes no sense (seriously, no sense) but it's impossible to know what will reach people.
Thanks, michelle, I think. I don't think it's really about gender either. I don't like to post things that don't make sense at all. Sometimes I do anyway, and every once in a while I know I'm doing it but I don't stop myself. But pretty much if I think I'm just rambling or if I think there's no point to my post at all, then I just stop.
Ooo... I'm not edumicated, but can I play? I think I will!!! =D This sounds simply fascinating, and I hope I can add something to your research!
1) I like to ponder on things, even if no one else seems to pay attention to what I say. Mostly it is about personal thoughts/views and how I understand why things are the way they are. I also delve into my psyche every once in a while, to show that I do ponder on some very personal thoughts - and I know there are others out there that may benefit from a thoughtfully articulated message to something that they have struggled or are struggling with. I will hardly say anything about my job, mostly because of the politics that are involved, and I don't want to loose it because I wrote something and had someone use it against me.
2) Mostly to just to put my thoughts down on "paper". Maybe someday go back and read them to see if I feel or view the subject the same way. Life changes over time, and so do people. I also like to try to help others try to understand why things are the way they are - at least how I understand them.
3) I only blog on things where I feel I can add something constructive or fun to the subject. Sometimes I take a blog off subject because something someone said fascinated me. Or I want to see how far off topic the blog can get...
4) Oh, yes!!! Variety *is* the spice of life! Agreeing to disagree often happens, simply because one refuses to accept the views of another. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, just that everyone has an opinion. I try to base my opinion upon facts, or what is perceived as facts anyway.
5) From what I've seen, men do tend to be more shallow, they tend to blog just like they would talk in a public place IRL. Women tend to go deep into the emotions and touch on their most heartfelt subjects. I'm really fascinated (I need a new word) by what women say, but I can often offer a comment that can help them deal with a problem - especially cross-gender related. I'm a dude.
Ok - well, I guess I'm outta here! Hope everything goes well with your research! =D
just would like a women to blog with.get to know some one to talk too.someone that would hear from me and mybe cry with.
depressed and tired life,s blues. any women out there that would like to talk?
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