Blogger, are You Experienced?

Last week I began a statistical examination of blogger responses to the lengthy meme “150 Things,” which is a long list of experiences that bloggers have been tagging each other with for at least a year or so. (If you came here because of a trackback, I included your blog in the statistical sample). Those tagged copy the list and reproduce it on their blog, with their experiences/accomplishments in bold type.  Response percentages (from a sample of 222 blogs) may be found in a summary report here. They are probably more interesting to look at in that form.  But if you want, I could put together some bar charts from the data.  Let me know. 

The percentages are pretty easy to use, I think.  Just look at a question, like #7, for example.  Sixty-three (63) percent of the bloggers sampled have taken a candlelit bath with someone.  If you have not, that makes you a loser :).  Or take question #40.  Only one percent of the bloggers sampled have been to all 50 states.  If you have, that’s an extraordinary accomplishment.  If you have not, well, almost nobody else has.  Don’t let it get to you.  Some of them are a little boring anyway, I suspect. 

For those who prefer this stuff in narrative form, I must point out that this was a pretty eclectic group of questions.  At any rate, most (more than half of the sample plus a percentage to account for sampling error) of the bloggers who took the time to bold the tasks that they had accomplished are not the sedentary creatures portrayed in the mainstream media.  Although most have lounged around in bed all day at least once (59), they obviously don’t make a lifestyle out of it.  They just don’t have the time.

They are social.  Most have formed friendships with people they admire (42).  Sure, they have had their share of skirmishes with their buddies, involving food (27) or frozen water (30), but they are supportive when it counts (41).  Most have an impulsive (88), romantic streak (7, 49, 62, 83) and have professed their love to significant others (8).  Despite their geeky reputations some have broken hearts along the way (110).  But they have also experienced love without getting their hearts broken (68) and ended up getting married (72) and having children (or at least changing them—20).

They may have an undeserved reputation for geekiness.  Most have never played D&D for more than six hours (71) or written their own computer language (140), although most have at some point alphabetized their CDs (56).  These people have used firearms (116), most of them, and ridden a horse (118), perhaps at the same time.  They are not to be trifled with—most of them have eaten raw fish.  It takes guts.  I remember. 

Perhaps they are not extroverts, but they have, possibly via liquid fortification (23), cut loose a little (36, 58, 102, 146).Most have gone to drive-in theaters (65), ridden roller coasters (34, perhaps where they screamed as loud as they could–31), attended huge sporting events (15) and stayed up late enough to watch the sun rise (13).
Most have not traveled extensively, although most took a road trip at some point in time and have toured ancient sites, whatever those are (47, 69).

They are effective communicators, although not necessarily with words (138).  Most say they have changed peoples minds (129).  If they are not perfectly happy, this group has known happiness (38).

They are a do-it-yourself group.  They make their own food, from scratch, if necessary, watching it grow from seeds, perhaps, into sugar cane, corn, wheat, etc., grinding the grain, smooshing the corn to make oil, and turning the finished bounty into cookies (17, 77).

This is the first of a small series of posts on this particular meme.  If your blog didn’t get a trackback from this yet, and you would like to be included, just comment, link to this post (from your 150 things post, if possible), or wave your arms or something—I’d be happy to put you in.  And if anybody has suggestions for other memes that might be in interesting study, do please let me know.  I’m thinking about doing one of the book memes rattling around, since the format is similar.

The blogs sampled for this particular study are listed below, with links (many didn’t have actual titles, particularly the ones from MySpace, so I am listing them with only their ID numbers.)

001, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 011, 012, 013, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, 021, 022, 023, 024, 025, 027, 030, 031, 032, 033, 034, 035, 036, 037, 038, 039, 040, 041, 042, 043, 044, 045, 046, 047, 048, 049, 050, 051, 052, 053, 054, 055, 056, 057, 058, 059, 060, 062, 063, 064, 066, 067, 068, 069, 070, 071, 072, 073, 074, 075, 076, 077, 078, 079, 080, 081, 082, 083, 084, 085, 086, 087, 088, 089, 090, 091, 092, 093, 094, 095, 096, 097, 098, 099, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, and 222.