"Bloggen är vad man gör den till" : en etnologisk undersökning av vardagsbloggarnas lockelser och konventioner

Sammanfattning: To many of us blogging is a natural part of our everyday life. Bloggers dedicate hours to writing in blogs, reading blogs, commenting on posts or answering comments on published posts. But what we choose to blog about can differ; this is an important note due to my discovery that what we choose to write about determines what benefits blogging holds to the blogger. This paper discusses the conventions of blogging as well as tries to answer the question of why blogging is so popular: why do we start blogging and why do so many choose to continue? These questions get answered by me analyzing the phenomenon that is blogging. I have studied both blogging as genre and as a kind of performance, as well as I have tried to hold an open dialogue with my informants. Thus I have concluded that blogging is to be considered a tool with many uses. Some are strictly practical and others have a more social value to them. I have also noted that the blogosphere is something constantly evolving. The blogosphere is far from a homogeneous field. I have found out that it can be difficult to examine the subject due to the need to make generalizations and assumptions. My furthermost important find is the conclusion that blogging (in this research) is not to be seen as merely texts, but as social actions. This realization also leads me to observations concerning the boundary between private and public, the media and the people and even a question of democratic values. By doing a limited investigation of a limited phenomenon, I have been able to point out key tendencies in our time.