Over at Crooked Timber Henry Farrell trails a paper he and some colleagues have been writing about the nature of people who read (and presumably comment on) blogs. I haven’t read the entire paper yet, but this comment caught my eye:
First – blog readers seem to exhibit strong homophily. That is to say, they overwhelmingly choose blogs that are written by people who are roughly in accordance with their political views. Left wingers read left wing blogs, right wingers read right wing blogs, and very few people read both left wing and right wing blogs. Those few people who read both left wing and right wing blogs are considerably more likely to be left wing themselves; interpret this as you like. Furthermore, blog readers are politically very polarized. They tend to clump around either the ‘strong liberal’ or the ‘strong conservative’ pole; there aren’t many blog readers in the center. This contrasts with consumers of various TV news channels, as the figure below illustrates. All of this suggests that blog readership is unlikely to be associated with the kinds of deliberative exchange between different points of view that some political theorists would like to see.
I’m not entirely surprised, but it is rather depressing.
Actually, I think this extends to more than just political leanings. Type of religious faith and the depth – or otherwise – of one’s religious belief are other divides that are rarely crossed on a habitual basis, at least not if the blogger ever blogs about them.
There are lots of other divides too, concerning lifestyle.
It all comes down to this: why read stuff that makes your blood boil or that you regard as just plain boring? Life’s too short to be either bored or upset on a daily basis…
I want to be stimulated, yes. I want interesting conversations, yes – but the trouble is that when people start believing things with a passion, they tend to be uninterested in discussing and a lot more interested in converting. So we tend to read the articles/blogs which make us feel at home. And yeah, I’m doubtless guilty if that too.
Before I can use my own case to test this theory, Cheryl, you need to tell me if your blog qualifies as a left-wing blog.
I don’t need advice on whether Jerry Pournelle’s is a right-wing blog. 😉
Glenda:
It isn’t the clustering so much that depressed me. I sort of expected that. It was the idea that only extremists read blogs, because blogs are a vehicle for extremists.
Mike:
Please remember Cheryl’s Third Law.
But in answer to your question, my blog is clearly right wing because I don’t have a faith-based view of economics.
Perhaps even more to the point, Cheryl – extremists of any kind can get instant validation of their point of view. They don’t have to ever consider whether they may be mistaken. “Proof” that they are right is only a mouse click away on that site where everyone agrees with them.
And that’s not just depressing; it’s scary.
(Of course, middle-of-the roaders can get their opinions “validated” too – but at least that’s not so scary…lol)