Friday, June 25, 2010

Four Things Friday


As 5 hour energy begat 6 hour power, and as 8 minute abs begat 7 minute abs... now, one time only, the makers of Three Things Thursday bring you FOUR THINGS FRIDAY!!!




1. When I first started reading blogs I'd come across a weekly phenomenon on one or two of the blogs I'd follow called: Three Things Thursday...  as I got deeper into the game I began to see more and more blogs that followed the blogger ritual of Three Things Thursday...

2. A quick Google search for "Three Things Thursday" yielded 302,000 results... and judging from the first 10 search results it definitely seems to be primarily a runner blogger phenomenon (I know, not super scientific of me, but it's not like I'm submitting this research to a peer reviewed journal or anything)... I noticed that Google has a new search option where you can narrow down the time window of the search so I figured I'd search older and older times until I found the original post... after several search interations I finally narrowed it down to one search result back in June 2006 from Jess over at 21 days...  I was excited!!!  So I head over to 21 days to check out my searched out result...FAIL.  Turns out the phrase "Three Things Thursday" that Google was detecting was actually in her "other blogs I follow" sidebar and that the "Three Things Thursday" word string was actually detected from a blog entry written yesterday...  I guess this means that Jess has one of the oldest running blogs on Blogger... it also means that if you write a post today, it could update a webpage written 5 years ago (basically time travel!!!)... it didn't however bring me any closer to the origins of "Three Things Thursday"

3. So why "Three Things Thursday" anyway... why not "Four Things Friday" (8,750 google entries or about 3% of the amount as "Three Things Thursday") or "Two Things Tuesday" (66,700 google entries or about 22% of the amount as "Three Things Thursday")???... seems like people are just fascinated with 3... after all so many things come in 3's -  Time (past, present, future), Life Cycle (you're born, you live, you die), Religion (the father, son, holy ghost for you Christians out there, or the three "fates" for those of you who still follow Greek Mythology), the Primary Colors (red, blue, yellow) Freud's division of the psyche (Id, Ego, & Super-Ego)... 3 points define a plane, 3 strikes you're out... 3 times a charm... 3 is a magic number... the list goes on and on and on...

4. Anyway, that's enough rambling for one day... don't feel like I came any closer to figuring out the mysteries of the origins of "Three Things Thursday"... also aren't sure why I'm so fascinated... I guess I'm a bit of a blogger sociologist (unfortunately for me since my mother-in-law is a sociologist)... How bout you?  Do you know the origins of "Three Things Thursday"... if so, please share!
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10 comments:

  1. HaroldJune 25, 2010 at 9:32 AM

    Nice research! I don't know the origins and I don't participate in it. I blog whenever I feel like it...heh

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  2. abbiJune 25, 2010 at 9:34 AM

    I don't know the origins either but I find your research fascinating. I thought I was the only one who does random research like that from time to time!

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  3. The Boring RunnerJune 25, 2010 at 9:34 AM

    I remember seeing who started 3 things thurs before. Let me shoot out a tweet to find out (I have my opinions)

    you're right - jess is something like 5 years in. Not many before her.

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  4. lishJune 25, 2010 at 9:48 AM

    No idea but I have totally jumped on the bandwagon a few times....Love the post!

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  5. The Boring RunnerJune 25, 2010 at 10:52 AM

    Behold the power of social networking!!!! The creator:

    http://cautionredheadrunning.blogspot.com/ Great blog BTW.

    You can make all thank you checks out to: "Cash" C/o The boring runner.....

    I've actually twitter'ed Morgan (RedHead) and asked her if she was the one - I'll let you know if she owns up to it or if she passes the ball

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  6. Evolving Through RunningJune 25, 2010 at 11:14 AM

    Interesting bit of research. Reading that kinda reminded me of the blog equivalent of the 'Bing' commercials where folks shout out random word associations. Thursdays are always an amusing day in the blogosphere, although they don't lend themselves to getting much done once I start reading the blogs.

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  7. EmzJune 25, 2010 at 11:57 AM

    So funny.

    I've never done those posts - other people do them so well, I take the back seat. ;)

    Happy Friday!

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  8. misszippyJune 25, 2010 at 1:43 PM

    Well, at least you tried to be original!

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  9. JamieJune 26, 2010 at 1:53 PM

    The 3 things Thursday seems to have blown up the running blog world over the last few months. Not sure how it started though. I'm on the bandwagon for 4 things Friday. Different but not.

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  10. LindsayJune 30, 2010 at 9:20 AM

    speaking of wasteful internet browsing.... ;) get off your random google searches so i can get a signal!!

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