Blogs have become an important element of popular culture, mass media, and the daily lives of countless Internet users. Like any habit, visiting blogs and posting can become a ritual, something that is not so much enjoyed as it is an automatic reaction: sit down at the computer, check your email, and check the blogs. A recent study from the University of California at Irvine looked at how people are reading blogs and the impact of blogs on their daily lives.

It seems that how people read blogs depends upon a number of factors, such as how the reader relates to the blogger, the content of the blog, the reader's habits, and the intent of both the blogger and reader. The study points out that while a blog may be considered to be a "one to many" communication medium, many readers believe that there is more of a "one to one" relationship, in which the blogger is relating directly to the reader.

Many readers, whether they participate in the blog by posting or not, also consider themselves to be a "part" of the blog - a member of a community. In some cases, they may even have a tendency to create a new personality to fit their blog identity.

One area of concern was the apparent tendency for readers to spend more of their time thinking about the blogger and why they read the blogs than the actual content of the blogs themselves. This would contradict the old Internet maxim that "content is king." In fact, it would appear that habit rules content instead.

All of the participants of the study agreed that blog reading was a habitual activity - that it was similar to sitting down in front of the television. Could it be that the next generations will be hooked on the latest blogs instead of "I Love Lucy?"