When explaining to my mother that one of my assignments for my new internship was regular blogging, she responded by asking me what in the world that met. My mother is an extremely intelligent woman, and thus her response made me wonder how many Americans actually blog, read blogs, or even know what a blog is. I will admit to the fact that it is only since becoming a college student that I started reading blogs myself (unless you count the infamous Xanga), and that my political blog viewing is still often interlaced with perezhilton.com or various Hoya basketball blogs.

Nevertheless, the research proved to be favorable for my mother. The most recent data I could find was from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which reported in 2006 that about twelve million American adults were blogging. While this represents only about 4% of the population, it is a great deal more than I had expected. However, I still do not think that the percentage is high enough that I can guiltlessly patronize my mother for not knowing what a blog even was. Not to mention that fact she knows much more about the world than our neighbors, whose knowledge of the internet probably does not extend past QVC.com

What’s my point? I think that while blogging is certainly becoming more and more mainstream, it still should not be assumed that most Americans, even most professionals, regularly read blogs, never mind keep one of their own.  Then again, I could just be justifying this because I anticipate that the amount of people who will read my first blog will equal about two.