Blogging is often associated with citizen journalism and new media sources for news and analysis of topics like technology and politics. However, according to Anil Dash of SixApart, many people who blog are doing it more to have personal conversations with friends, family and people who share their interests.

While the vision of many people is that bloggers are trying to become the new broadcasters, Dash argues that the majority of bloggers don't want the whole world reading their thoughts, rather that they want to connect with people for conversation. He points to the success of LiveJournal, a site that most blogging pundits ignore as merely a space for teenagers' diaries. Instead, Dash points out that the average LiveJournal user is in her twenties, and that the community aspect of the site is the main draw for users.

Dash claims that there is not as much of a gulf between the "expert" blogs and private, low traffic blogs as some analysts would believe. Rather, he warns that the New York Times is really competing with family gossip or photos of a friend's new puppy for readership. While the type of content is different, the deep value of blogs is in the ability of ordinary people to share their regular lives with the people who care about that subject, which is a much more loyal audience than any newspaper could command.