Exploring bloggers' motivation and behavior in Thailand

Abstract

Blogs have evolved exponentially as a global phenomenon where scholars have attempted to answer why and how people use blogs. An active weblog requires a long-term commitment and much effort from a host to frequently update the contents as well as from users to regularly interact with the webblog. Thus, an investigation on what motivate people to blog interactively may help us develop and promote blog usage to fulfill various needs of the users better. This study serves two purposes: (a) to discover the reasons why people blog and (b) to investigate the relationships of how motives influenced blog usage. Different from previous research, this study used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore blog motivations directly from users. The findings revealed five blog motives: new friendship, relationship maintenance, passing time, social influence, and self-expression. Relationship maintenance, new friendship, and passing time were significant predictors of length and duration of blogging. Gender differences were significant in relationship maintenance motive and time spent on blogs.