A new blog is created every 5.8 seconds, but don’t feel bad if you don’t know exactly what a blog is; you aren’t alone. The Pew Internet & American Life Project estimates 62 percent of the 120 million American adults using the Internet haven’t the foggiest idea what the word "blog" means. Now you don’t have to be one of them: A blog — short for Web log — is a frequently updated diary of thoughts or commentary published on the Internet.

Anyone can publish a blog. Celebrities such as William Shatner, Barbara Streisand, former New Orleans Saint Ricky Williams and rock star Sheryl Crow all have blogs. Web logs are making a splash in the political arena, too. A post on Instapundit.com, the blog of a Tennessee law professor, led to the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in 2002. Bloggers also helped Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean raise $40 million in campaign donations online during his 2004 bid for the presidential nomination.

Most blogs, however, don’t have that kind of clout. In a recent study, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports 8.4 million American Internet users have created blogs and 32.4 million read blogs. The majority of them aren’t forcing resignations of public figures or making any money. Most blogs are more personal, used to ruminate on pet peeves and hobbies or share photos and insights into daily life with small groups of friends and family.

Mark Moseley started a blog when his first child was born last year. "I had just watched my wife create a human being, and I wanted to create something, too," says Moseley, who posts on Neworleans.metblogs.com and RightHandThief.blogspot.com. "It was a period of transition in my life and blogging presented an important opportunity to express myself."

It also provided a personal political outlet. "I was tired of yelling at the television," he says jokingly. "When I blog, I get to vent on politics, then I get comments and feedback from people across the political spectrum, which spurs dialogue."

Moseley, who spends 45 minutes every day working on his blog, says "it’s addictive. Blogs provide easy, instant access to nearly infinite numbers of views and perspectives."

And, thanks to blogging, he no longer yells at his TV.

Ernie Svenson, whose blog ErnieTheAttorney.net covers technology and law issues, says "people need a few basic things in life: food, water, shelter and connection with other people. Blogging facilitates connections with people," which is why it’s so popular.

Svenson realized this when he began blogging three years ago. "I wasn’t really interested in blogs that much when I started. I thought I’d try it out for a few days for laughs," he says. "Then I discovered it was a great way to connect with people. I got hooked and never stopped."

People remain the main reason Svenson keeps posting. "It puts me in touch with a lot of cool people I would not meet otherwise," he says.

Virtual relationships are the driving factor for many bloggers, not just Svenson. "Blogs create communities of people with common interests and sensibilities," says John D’Addario, the editor of Fleshbot.com, a sex-theme blog best known for its discovery of hotel heiress Paris Hilton’s amateur adult video. "You can develop relationships and friendships online that are as substantial and meaningful as if you’d met someone in person. I have close friends that I have never been in the same room with."

The other driving factor is the perennial human desire to share opinions with other people. "Bloggers are the modern day equivalent of pamphleteers," says Larry Lorenz, Ph.D., a journalism professor at Loyola University New Orleans.

In the past, printing flyers and pamphlets — think Thomas Paine’s "Common Sense", which helped spark the American Revolution — was one of the few ways individuals could share ideas with the public at large, he says. "Some were intelligent and worth reading, like ‘Common Sense’, and others weren’t," says Lorenz. "Blogs are very similar. They are a good outlet for people to express themselves. They are cheap and easy to produce, and occasionally, one of them presents a revolutionary idea."

The concept of a blog in itself is revolutionary, says D’Addario. "In the past one of the only ways to comment was to write a letter to the [newspaper] editor and then pray they published it," he says. Now, five minutes after something happens, "you can post your opinion on a blog and invite others to share their comments. In that respect, blogs are a tech phenomenon; there was just nothing like that before. They have a lot of potential as far as publishing your work and presenting your ideas to a large audience."

Blogs have also personalized world events. Within a few minutes of July’s London bombings, D’Addario says, bloggers had posted eyewitness, first-hand accounts of the bombings accompanied by photos they had taken on their camera phones. "Blogs have changed the way people get breaking news," he says.

Most blogs, however, aren’t sparking any revolutions. "Probably 75 percent of blogs cover things like ‘I had pancakes for breakfast,’" D’Addario says.

Reaching out into the blogosphere is easier than it has ever been, which may account for their rapid growth — there are twice as many blogs now as there were in 2003 — and the proliferation of personal blogs. Also, potential bloggers don’t need any special technical skills or money to set one up. Sites such as Myspace.com, Livejournal.com and Blogspot.com host blogs free of charge and once you register, you can have your blog up and running in less than five minutes. "You no longer need to do any tedious coding to put up a site," D’Addario says.

Linda Novak had registered a domain name and had a blog, themagazinggirl.com, up and running in less than an hour. Novak, the owner of Magazines on Magazine, started the blog — a collection of links and reviews of the magazines she has in stock — to publicize her new business. "I was thinking of nontraditional ways to get the word out on a new business, and a friend of mine showed me how easy it was to set up a Web presence," she says.

"The blog helped me promote my presence as the only independent newsstand in New Orleans," Novak says. "I recommend starting one, along with an email list, to anyone with a need for promotion and a budget short of a billboard."

Whether they’re used as a business tool or a political soapbox, blogs are simply a new spin on a very old idea.

"Blogs are just an updated, futuristic version of the personal diary," Moseley says. "I just put my thoughts on the screen instead of in a notebook."