Evolution of the blog

Here it is, the day before I teach my "blogosphere" class at PSU and today's Oregonian has a front-page story that couldn't be more timely or relevant.

The headline and deck say it all: "A new age in blogging: 30 and up | As youths give up blogging for sites such as Facebook, adults take their places, a poll finds" (Evidently, we didn't post the story on OregonLive.com, but you can find it here instead.)

A study has found that young people are losing interest in long-form blogging because they tend to communicate in shorter bursts and on the run. Think Twitter and text messages, delivered via their cell phones. That's not so surprising, given that tweens, teens and younger adults have been migrating to those forms of communication rather than e-mail.

According to The Associated Press:

The study, released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found that 14 percent of Internet youths, ages 12 to 17, now say they blog, compared with just over a quarter who did so in 2006. And only about half in that age group say they comment on friends' blogs, down from three-quarters who did so four years ago.

Pew found a similar drop in blogging among 18- to 29-year-olds.

So, who's stepping into the void? Older adults -- with "older" in this case meaning 30 years or more.

The study estimates that about one in 10 online adults maintain a blog -- a number that's held steady since 2005, when blogs became more of mainstream activity. That would mean there are more than 30 million adults in the U.S. who blog.

Significantly, the Pew study found, "the percentage of Internet users age 30 and older who maintain a blog increased from 7 percent in 2007 to 11 percent in 2009."

Interesting to see that Rough and Rede lies squarely in the middle of that trend. And great timing for tomorrow's class.

Graphic: Associated Press/Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C.