Why do people blog!

By Nermeen Kamel
For JRMC 270 (Online Communication)
Dr. Rasha A. Abdulla
The American University in Cairo
Journalism and Mass Communication Department
Fall 2008


Blogging is a phenomenon that has given people all the over the world the chance to express their opinons freely and speak their minds openly in a variety of issues. Sometimes, people are not able to state their opinions plainly in some subjects because of cultural and traditional obstacles, and so they consider 'blogs' their only ground to say whatever they want to say without any restrictions and boundaries.

Subjects about religion, politics, government and sex are not talked about so openly in our Middle Eastern culture so people directly run to blogging websites where they think their opinions should be. That exactly is why blogs in the Middle East has increased rapidly. Many bloggers now would write about the government, criticizing it and may talk about the president himself and state their opinions honestly without worrying about any restrictions or what might happen to them. They also do think that they won't get caught anyways because they dont mention anything about their personal information, not even their names. Everything remains anonymous.

For other people, blogs are nothing but an online dairy for them. Some people create blogs just to write about their daily experiences, what happened to them through the day and what situations they've been through. They write just to share their experiences, speak out their problems and discuss it with their friends or other fellow bloggers that became online friends too. They just do it for the sake of fun and nothing more than that. They wouldn't care to write a blog entry about the US elections and Obama for example.

However, some bloggers write about nothing but politics. These are pure political blogs where the authors only discuss the latest news on El Gezira channel, CNN or BBC. They write about the government and criticize it so freely and harshly. They write about Palestine, Iraq, Israel, the United States and the conflict that never reaches an end between them all. I think that these blogs are the most popular because they certainly are the most controversial and interesting as they display entries about issues that are considered taboos.

On the other hand, some blogs are all about the latest gossip in town, who is doing what, who is dating who, who is throwing a party when and so on. These blogs are also among the most popular because people are by instinct interested in gossip and curious to know the latest updates happening in the social community.

Blogging became very significant for many people around the world. They represent a social phenomenon and so they are in a constant evolution. Today blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Newspapers that incorporated blogs to their main website to offer a new channel for their writers. Individuals that created a blog to share with the world their expertise on specific topics. And so on.