Not reading blogs yet?

So, you still haven't figured out what this blog thing is all about. You wouldn't be reading this blog if it weren't for the subject matter. You don't read blogs.

Well, you are not alone, according to a survey completed by the Scripps Survey Research Center of Ohio University this summer. The survey showed that only one in eight residents in the United States currently uses Internet blogs to get news and information. That's it! You are justified! Forget all this hype about blogs!

There is more to think about, though. First of all, when you consider that the numbers of people who actually read newspapers is not all that much better, the one in eight doesn't look so bad. Also, the survey showed that almost a quarter of young adults read blogs at least once a week. It's the older folks, 65 and older, who are at the 3 percent level.

Other important findings:

• Blogs are more popular with whites than minorities.
  
• Those who are single (lots of time on their hands?) and who live in urban areas are most likely to read blogs.
  
• And while blogs are most popular among well-educated people, they are also popular among people who are most likely to believe in conspiracy theories
  

But one thing not in the survey that I think is important. So what if only one in eight people read blogs for news and information? It wasn't all that long ago that only one in about eight adults even used the World Wide Web. I can remember when only one in 10 JACC advisers even had an e-mail address.

Technorati, the company that tracks the blogosphere, reports that there are more than 52 million blogs worldwide and that the number doubles about every 200 days. The numbers and usuage is going to grow the way e-mail and Web usage did. People who know me have probably heard my analogy of the guy who builds a lemonade stand in the middle of the desert. He's not selling much lemonade today, but when the road comes through he's going to be the one who gets to hang the sign that says, "Been in business since ...."