2. Who answered our Older Bloggers Survey?
Who identifies as an “older blogger”? Choose your own definition of older.
First, how many people completed our Older Bloggers Survey in May-June 2018? Altogether 123 people responded. Some skipped a few questions, but most questions were answered by 110–120 people. Moreover, most questions evoked numerous comments, which illuminate the results.
Who were these older bloggers? We imposed no age restriction, so people made their own decisions about whether they qualified as “older”. To our surprise, 7% of respondents were under 45. I thought their decision to take the survey was perfectly understandable: at 30, it’s natural to feel much older than 20, and at 40 much older still.
Even with this interesting minority involved, we did reach our intended population. It’s difficult to find accurate information about the age of bloggers in general, but there’s no doubt that our respondents are significantly older than the average blogger, as a group. (Percentages are rounded.)
- 40% were aged 55–64
- 34% were 65–74
- 11% were 75 or older.
Where do respondents live?
The survey shows that 47% live in USA, 24% in the United Kingdom, 11% in New Zealand, 7% in Australia, 5% in Canada, and smaller numbers in India, Italy, Malaysia, S. Africa, Thailand and Poland. I see nothing surprising about this information, which reflects these two facts: the survey is in English, and the survey’s designers live and blog in New Zealand.
When did the older bloggers start blogging?
Older people are stereotyped as technophobes and low users of the internet, and indeed there is evidence for this. But, as we see here, that’s not the full story.
Of the respondents to the Older Bloggers Survey, 40% began blogging between 55–64, and 21% began after the age of 65. One started at age 83—and one as a teenager. One was a very early adopter: “I started blogging a little before Facebook and laptops and smart phones.”
Graph showing at what age our older bloggers started to blog
Of the 46 comments on this question, most show that age was not the trigger but some life event. The “when” of starting to blog is entangled with the “why”:
- 9 bloggers said they began when they retired
- 6 started blogging for work, to promote a business or a book, to create an online professional profile or to help with a job hunt
- 2 began after having their first child
- several began when they gained a new interest, for example in wine, travel, sustainable living, a 900km hike, or the new technology.
The events that trigger a blogging debut may be complex and idiosyncratic. Here are two comments that demonstrate this rather gloriously.
- “Started months after husband’s sudden death by accidentally publishing and not knowing how to remove from Internet so continued to save face.”
- “I started blogging in order to publicise my books, as a vehicle for my creativity and to vent my spleen.”
What are their blogs about?
Our survey asked, What is the title of your main blog? and we got 122 replies. From their titles, I expected to learn something about the topic or theme of each blog. But it wasn’t so simple.
- At least 43 blog titles give no clear hint about the topic or theme.
- At least 20 have titles that suggest ageing or retirement is an important topic of the blogs, e.g. Middle-aged Warrior, My Retirement Journey, Waking up on the wrong side of 50, Time Goes By — What it’s really like to get old, and Savoring Sixty and Beyond.
- At least 19 titles state or hint at the writer’s name, e.g. BeetleyPete, Candidkay, and Wendy Goes Outside.
- At least 14 suggest that writing or blogging is the main topic, e.g. The Word, How to Start a Blog, and Jotting Ink
- About 8 titles specify the exact topic of their blog, as in WineTalkGroup,
- At least 6 titles denote a professional or technical blog, for example Mobile Mum Tech Rescue, Low Visionary, and various authors’ blogs.
Please take this categorisation of blog titles with a grain of salt. You notice that each number is qualified by “at least” or “about”. That’s because older bloggers seem to have fun naming their blogs, so that many blog titles are ambiguous, inventive, comical, multipurpose, punning, mysterious, or all of the above. How to categorise susieshy45, for example, or Myricopia, or Tootlepedal’s Blog? (Fortunately for the reader, a blog’s tag-line usually clarifies the theme or main topic.)
Judging by their titles, we can safely say that the majority of these blogs are personal rather than professional. As you’ll see in the next article, this does not seem to detract from the time and energy and commitment invested by older bloggers.
PS As you see, the number of reports on this survey has already increased. Next report on Monday is about the habits of older bloggers: how often they blog, how much time they spend, and so forth.
Please share, with a link to this page. CC BY 2.0 Rachel McAlpine
Thank you for sharing these results, Rachel. And, giving us little bits at a time is perfect.
That’s good because
Because it’s all I can manage!
How about this.
I had a livejournal way back when I was a little older but nowhere near as old as I am now, but that all went down the drain so my current blog is just for business. Too bad–it used to be a great site.
Blogs have their own rhythm, I reckon. That may be a good thing.
It was a whole way of life over there–no tracking of IP addresses except by the company in case of trouble, and people could use nicknames and interact really well on each others’ blogs. It was very worthwhile. It seems things now are more isolated, although there are a lot more visuals.
I knew bulletin boards in the olden days. Now we can choose a platform that suits us. Do you know micro.blog? Hope I got that right. I find WP blogs the most friendly and comfortable place for me personally.
I don’t know micro.blog. I wish they did not allow us to edit other people’s comments here, since to me that is a complete violation of privacy and even law, probably–I was chatting today with a WP representative who did not realise that I can edit any comment of yours, say, and make it look like you threatened me, praised me, promised me something, cursed at me, spammed me, anything at all. I said it was a lawsuit waiting to happen, since then those comments go out into the world in my name, under my paid account. I find that very problematic and do not use comments for endorsements any more, since I could simply change them anytime I wanted..
Wow, I had no idea. I knew I could delete other people’s comments, quite rightly. But change them? On the iPad I can’t even edit my own comments. Let’s press for change.
I think it’s a big deal and even wrote a post about it–the worker that I chatted with today was very receptive and hadn'[t understood the vast ramifications of it and had been trained to simply support it as a way to allow people to edit cursewords out, or the odd spammy tagline.
+I found this quite interesting. I was saddened his week to find two of my favorite bloggers giving up. One is 76 and plans to devote more time to just being. The other, a younger doctor and writer just decided to stop blogging.
Yes, that’s a little bit painful, letting go a blogging friend.
BTW you showed one blogger who began at age 83, That must be me. I am now 90 and still blogging.
Kayti, you are an inspiration to me—and doubtless many others.
Wow! 🙃
Thank you for sharing the results of your survey! I love data and information so this is right up my alley. I will be interested in your future posts.
Terrific. I’ll be back!
I love the section about titles. I think you are right that many of us love word play.
I know that my “title” isn’t always the focus of my blog – I’ve got more serious in portraying my artmaking – and I’ve been thinking I should have another blog just for that…
non-warped relates to what I was doing at the time of beginning this blog – I was a full time hand weaver with looms…and you’ve “got to be warped to weave” – warp is part of the web of threads on a loom…
It’s a fun concept still!
I was surprised to see some who thought of themselves as older were in their forties. Interesting.
It’s a very personal viewpoint. And to a 90 year old, 78 can seems very young.
Absolutely! I have the same experience with my blog. I never know what it will tap in people of various ages.
I’m not surprised. You know what I mean!
Interesting about age…. I started at 36ish with the first baby and he’s a teen now. Still in the parenting trenches, still blogging.
Love this! Data and analysis, fun! Looking forward to the next one…
Claudette, it’s great to have you aboard. I can personally recall feeling oh so mature at 19…
Lol.
Fascinating summary. I look forward to the next post.
Stay tuned!
Very interesting results. I think more ‘olders’ would blog if they didn’t see if as a techie, geeky thing. Which it isn’t!
One of my friends loathed the word “blog” passionately, which was the main barrier for her!
You had a nice sample, Rachel. The spread is very interesting.
As one that participated, it is intriguing to see the first lot of results. So much so I have reblogged this post as many of my readers may not have seen it.
Thanks for sharing this Suzanne and for your contribution. Another instalment will appear today.
Really interesting. I wish I’d have seen this to participate at the time. Look forward to reading further 😊
Many participants did enjoy the survey! Glad you have found us.
Fascinating stuff Rachel. Didn’t see your survey initially unfortunately but would have liked to contribute. Of particular interest I suppose as we are mid-50s bloggers who started 3 years ago when we changed our lives to travel. Great to see other people in the same age-group and learn about their experiences. So interesting.
Jonno, you certainly have plenty of company as a travel-focused mid-fifties blogger. I’m glad you’re enjoying these insights into other bloggers’ lives!
So interesting Rachel. It’s great to read other like-minded and similar aged thoughts and stories. Sometimes you feel like it’s only you living this particular type of life but when you look deeper there’s a whole community lurking.