Saturday, January 30, 2016

Blog Study


Below is a portion of an email that I got a couple of days ago from a Ph.D. student at USC:

I’m interested in how the thoughts and experiences written by people like you on weblogs and other social media can be used to make conclusions about society as a whole. I am contacting you because I am trying to collect reliable data about bloggers’ opinions, experiences, and characteristics in order to refine and evaluate my analyses. 

If you are at least 18 years old and interested in helping me, please take the brief survey linked in this email. It should only take about 15 minutes of your time. Your responses will be kept confidential. 

In the course of this study, we will also be analyzing the public posts on your weblog using natural language processing technology. The goal of this analysis is to correlate your responses to this survey with what you write about your life on your weblog. 


His email contained several links that I wasn't about to click on . . . yet . . . because, you know, you just don't do that.

I googled the guy's name instead and was eventually led to the video below. It shows him interviewing various blogger people. They intrigued me . .  . mostly because they WERE me. 

When I first started blogging I was a bit apprehensive. Putting myself "out there" for the whole world to judge was intimidating. But the days, weeks and months flew by, and here I am today, 9 years from the start, being asked to participate in a survey about blogging. Who woulda thought?





13 comments:

Honolulu Aunty said...

That is so cool, Jalna! Keep up the good work, love to visit you!

jalna said...

Thanks Aunty!

SW said...

hm..cool.. I would've thought it was some social science subject, but a USC computer science study? I think it's cool how your blog brings so many people together..It's weird but I don't just read your blog, I even enjoy reading comments. :-)

Erick said...

Wow 9 years, how cool.

Mark Shelby said...

Kewl....!

Well, I am very thankful for your Blog Jalna! And I never would have found you had you not posted a Blog about the Hawaii Wigwam Dept. Stores! And we had fun chats about my Father and the memories.

And yes! You are the Blog friend that I never met yet! But I knew from the first moment that we are kindred spirits!

And Wendell's cooking is da Bomb! Holy Moly! Wendell is like da bess Uncle I neva met!

I consider you one of my very special Hawaiian Kine Aunties! And you know dat's a serious compliment!

Keep going! ; )

K and S said...

cool!

jalna said...

Thanks SW! I thought the same thing too . . . computer science?

Erick, I think that's about the time we met.

Awwwww, thank you Mark!

Thanks, Kat. I was wondering if you might've gotten an email too.

Leslie's pics said...

wow, this is pretty neat...you're kinda famous! Amazing that they found you :)

Kay said...

Oh what fun! That is so cool. However, I would have been wary like you too. I love your blog as well!

jalna said...

Les, I think the smart guys came up with a program to pick out the compulsive people like me who are long-standing prolific bloggers. According to my blogger statistics I'm very unfamous.

jalna said...

Thanks Kay!

Nippon Nin said...


That was really interesting research/interviews!

Jalna, I'm tidying up my house right now after reading Marie Kondo's Magic of tiding. Harder than I thought, so many interruptions...I was a bit surprise to see her on People's magazine the other day.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of your blog!

jalna said...

Ooooohh, I'll go check out Marie Kondo, Akemi. Thanks!