I think Julianne hit upon a good point when she mentioned that blogging could be therapeutic. When we're angry, pissed off, or just generally not happy about what's going on in life, it can be helpful to know that other people are reading and commiserating with us (through the helpful comment system on most blogs). It's a small victory against what often seems like an unending tide of hopelessness - or at least that's the vibe I get from a lot of blogs. A small victory often only moral in nature - but a victory nonetheless. There's probably also a genuine sense of wanting to share one's own experiences with others present in blogging - after all, we humans thrive on attention and what better way to get attention than by being entirely open and releasing juicy tidbits to the public?
Our reasons for reading blogs are a bit more unclear to me. Personally, the reason why I am reading these blogs right now is because I was assigned to. Much of what I have read is insufferably boring and pointless dreck. I really don't care about many of the bloggers and why their shallow existence is so terrible. A few bloggers, however, rise above that (such as the Waiter Rant I mentioned a few days ago). They make one genuinely care about what happens in the blog and in the bloggers' life. The readers of these blogs often are developing a voyeuristic attitude towards the blog - once they find something interesting, they clamp onto that and follow it closely - sharing in the bloggers' experiences, commiserating with the downs and celebrating with the ups - basically, living vicariously through the blogger. It's the same concept behind reality shows and such - reading blogs gives us an escape from our own existences - living the life of a person who seems more fantasy than fact.
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