Who do we write for?

In the early days of blogging, blogs were thought of as something similar to journaling or writing a diary. These metaphors continued to be used and the general outlook towards blogging sounded suspiciously like a solitary activity, done by someone who is hunched over their computers; 'a single person leading a solitary existence'. These views have previously been questioned in the literature and the initial findings of this research make me agree with this line of questioning.
Bloggers always talk about writing for someone. As a participant told me "It was demotivating, just to think that nobody would read what I write." I find this idea of blogging as a means for creative expression, writing  so some one will read and maybe understand the blogger or find some inspiring ideas, a fascinating one.Also helping with this are tools provided by  blog hosting websites that enable bloggers to track who reads their blogs, what kind of posts are most popular and so on.
What do you think about this idea of blogging as an inherently social activity, one for connecting with an audience out there? Opinions, thoughts, ideas...??

Taking the plunge!

My first post!! Finally, I am taking the plunge into the deep end........

This blog is where my ideas especially about my dissertation have a space to breathe, live, stay, change and survive or maybe not. My research is about blogging and while trying not to be too predictable, I don't know of a better way to learn about blogging than to start one. I am told it's like swimming, get thrown in the water and you will learn. So here is my struggling to avoid getting water into my nose post.....:)

I started this project sometime in 2011 and have been talking with bloggers and reading plenty of  blogs.That sounds like fun, doesn't it? Well, to me it definitely is, since I love to read and the people I have been talking to are so interesting and full of new ideas. For instance, one  (participant/consultant/ friend/ fellow blogger.....the semantics are kind of difficult here, since she is all of these) said that blogs are the lazy man's route to publishing and that made me think of this writer/publisher who loves to spend hours sitting in front of a computer screen typing, editing and finally gets approval not from a publication but from the people who really matter to her (friends, family and even total random strangers). The satisfaction of seeing you own work in print and knowing that somewhere somebody will come across it and read it! Fun right?
Any thoughts about this???????