Friday, September 26, 2008

Is this you?


Nobody except Lurch knows I'm a blogger so I was asked at work to discover as much as I could about bloggers for a project on consumer segmentation. I spent a lot of time investigating, but that doesn't mean I'm neurotic. This is one article that summarised a lot of others, thought you might be interested!

Computers in human behaviour (somebody tell me how to do a link!!)

The Big Five personality inventory measures personality based on five key traits: neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness [Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment 4, 5–13]. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that individual differences on the Big Five factors are associated with different types of Internet usage [Amichai-Hamburger, Y., & Ben-Artzi, E. (2003). Loneliness and Internet use. Computers in Human Behavior 19, 71–80; Hamburger, Y. A., & Ben-Artzi, E. (2000). Relationship between extraversion and neuroticism and the different uses of the Internet. Computers in Human Behavior 16, 441–449]. Two studies sought to extend this research to a relatively new online format for expression: blogging. Specifically, we examined whether the different Big Five traits predicted blogging. The results of two studies indicate that people who are high in openness to new experience and high in neuroticism are likely to be bloggers. Additionally, the neuroticism relationship was moderated by gender indicating that women who are high in neuroticism are more likely to be bloggers as compared to those low in neuroticism whereas there was no difference for men. These results indicate that personality factors impact the likelihood of being a blogger and have implications for understanding who blogs.

19 comments:

SMS said...

Oh no, you mean I could be NEUROTIC? Is there any hope?
:D!

Lori ann said...

uh, what? i need to go look up neuroticism...of course right after i update my blog ;)

x lori

Kitty said...

Whatever...
I hope I'm not too neurotic (though wouldn't rule it out). There's a lot of negative feeling about Bloggers, mainly that we're 'sad'. I was a closet blogger for a long time but am guardedly more open with some people. Mainly, though I don't want people from 'real life' reading my blog - I may have to start moderating what I say!

Stinking Billy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Stinking Billy said...

btm, you should be ashamed of yourself, having to ask for somebody to show you how to embed a link. You should be doubly ashamed to find that help is forthcoming from *me*, the world's most untechnical blogger. ;-)

1. Go to the page you wish to embed and, using 'right-click', copy the url at the top of that page.

2. Your draft post should be in the Edit section (prior to publishing).

3. Highlight the spot where you want the link to appear (either the title of the page or just 'here').

4. Still in Edit, go to the apple-shaped thingy in the row of options along the top, delete the http thingy because you already have that in the copy you took, and 'right-click and paste-in the url.

Publish your post and you should see that the name of your link (or 'here') is 'live'. Click on it to test that.

You know, that is all from memory and mine is like a sieve, but I hope I got it right. x

Millennium Housewife said...

What does it Mean? Do I look fat in a blog? How neurotic is neurotic???? MH

Anonymous said...

came via the black box, and I had a good laugh...
does that mean i am open to being neuroticistic?

Casdok said...

Interesting if i knew what neuroticism meant! But i do know i learn a lot from blogging as i do look these things up!

Working Mum said...

Open to new experience and neurotic! How does a working mum have time for either? (although I do seem to find time for blogging!)

Suburbia said...

I admit it! I'm neurotic!! I always knew I was and there you go. However that means everyone else I visit is too?!!!
Thanks for this. Do you mind if I copy it onto mine one day?

blogthatmama said...

Stinking Billy, a big thanks for the link help, now I know! Sorry I was so rubbish that I published both comments by accident. You are officially my techno-fairy godfather!

SMS, Lori Ann, Casdok, Jenna, Millennium Housewife I don't know if it means you look fat in a blog (ha, ha!) or that you're neurotic, but it certainly makes you worry that you are, in a very open sort of way, of course...

Kitty B I agree that you can't be open if all of your friends and family know and I love to do it as a hobby, I think I'll keep it to myself for the time being though and I don't think I'm sad, I just think I'm enjoying writing my blog.

Suburbia feel free to copy it, I have!

blogthatmama said...

Working Mum it's a strange combination, isn't it? Imagine what we'd be like if we weren't working?

Tim Atkinson said...

'...whereas there was no difference for men.' Big sigh of relief! Hang on a minute..

Dottie said...

Neurotic? Oh, probably, but who cares? This is Art! Nobody minds that Van Gogh cut off his ear, he was an Artist!nowdontdistractmewhileIlookforthevalium
Grin!
Dottie x

Expat mum said...

I 'll just have to assume I'm in the "open to new experiences" group. After all, I did move to the States didn't I? I have never been called neurotic in my life and I just couldn't possibly start now that I'm in my forties; I mean, it's just not possible for someone to have that much of a character change at such a late stage....

ADDY said...

So that's it, then. I am neurotic. I am now pacing up and down in front of the computer, like a caged tiger!!

blogthatmama said...

Dotterel I can't quite decide whether you're neurotic or not, your blog will be the deciding factor.

Dottie, Expat Mum and Rosiero - no, no, no, nobody's saying anybody's neurotic, (I'm worried I've inadvertently offended you all now) blogthatmamax

Can Bass 1 said...

Well, really... This is the biggest load of rubbish I have ever read. Well, maybe not, but it's close. Why, bloggers are the sanest people that I know. (In fact, they're largely the only people that I know!)

DJ Kirkby said...

To do a link you copy the url of the site you want to link to then go into the pos tyou are writing and click on the chain link symbol and paste the url into the box that appears. Then go into HTML and in the second part of the link (the bit between the last < and >) you can type in whatever words you want and then after that delete the remaining charecters until you get to the end <, don't delete that one. Gawd I hope all that made sense...oh and I would be more neurotic than open to new expereinces