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Personal blogs as online presences on the internet: Exploring self-

presentation and self-disclosure in blogging

Article in Aslib Proceedings · February 2013

DOI: 10.1108/00012531311313989

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Personal blogs as
Personal blogs as online online presences
presences on the internet
Exploring self-presentation and
self-disclosure in blogging 161
Jenny Bronstein
Department of Information Science, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate the creation of a virtual presence in personal blogs
through self-presentation and self-disclosure. Five elements of self-presentation and self-disclosure
were examined: the way bloggers present themselves in their blogs; the degree and frequency of
disclosure of personal information in the blogs; the feelings or reactions bloggers have when posting or
receiving a comment; the significance blogs have in the bloggers’ lives; and the subjects bloggers write
about in their blogs.
Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was designed for the study and 90 bloggers
from six Latin American countries who maintain a personal blog participated in the study. In the first
phase a statistical analysis yielded quantifiable demographic data about the participants, the personal
information they disclose in their blogs, and statistical data on feelings involved in blogging. In the
second phase a content analysis examined the bloggers’ textual answers using open coding.
Findings – Findings show that bloggers created a virtual presence in their blogs perceived as a
“protected space”. Bloggers reported feeling satisfied and drained when posting a new comment in
their blog. Bloggers in this study described their blogs as being a part of their selves, a communication
tool, a writing tool and their favourite hobby.
Originality/value – This study is relevant to the field of information behaviour because it provides
an example of the fulfillment of different information needs through the creation of a virtual presence
on a blog and examines the dichotomy present in blogging between the private and the public spheres.
Keywords Blogging, Self-presentation, Self-disclosure, Latin American blogosphere, Internet, Blogs
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Online communication has become an integral part of people’s everyday lives so
understanding the positive impacts of these media on is an important issue. Within the
social media environment, personal blogs have become an increasingly popular place
where people write about themselves, their innermost thoughts and experiences and
post these writings in an online space accessible to all that in many cases becomes their
personal presence in cyberspace.
The study of personal blogs is important to social media research because according
to Technorati Media State of the Blogosphere (2011), 60 per cent of bloggers “blog for
fun” and do not report any income, half of these bloggers said they prefer to express
their “personal musings” when blogging. Blogs are often characterised by high Aslib Proceedings: New Information
amounts of self-disclosure (Chen, 2012; Herring et al., 2005; Viégas, 2005) that foster the Perspectives
Vol. 65 No. 2, 2013
development of social connections and the communication of one’s identity pp. 161-181
(Hollenbaugh, 2011; Nardi et al., 2004; Stefanone and Jang, 2007). The creation and q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0001-253X
communication of one’s identity online is related to the different bloggers’ motivations DOI 10.1108/00012531311313989
AP found in the literature (Bronstein, 2012; Lee et al., 2008; Li, 2005; Hollenbaugh, 2011;
65,2 Nardi et al., 2004) such as a desire to document their lives, to share information with
others, to practice their writing, and to create and maintain a network of social
connections. The perception of a blog as a venue for self-expression has been revealed
as a salient notion in blogging research. Bloggers are able to release emotional stress
by venting feelings, thoughts and ideas in an online environment less threatening than
162 face-to-face communication (Bronstein, 2012; Baker and Moore, 2008; Nardi et al., 2004).
The creation of an online presence through the communication of one’s identity is
fostered by different elements of self-presentation and self-disclosure on blogs that
have been investigated in the literature such as various types of anonymity in
self-presentation (Schau and Gilly, 2003; Qian and Scott, 2007), profiles of
disclosiveness (Hollenbaugh, 2010), environmental clues of self disclosure (Stefanone
et al., 2009), gender specific issues in blogging (Chen, 2012; Jang and Stefanone, 2011;
Masullo Chen, 2012), subjective well-being and social benefits resulting from
self-disclosure in blogging (Ko and Kuo, 2009) and the expression of emotions in
blogging (Derks et al., 2008; Liao et al., 2011; Morris, 2011; Nardi et al., 2004). A few
studies have delved into the feelings elicited by blogging in bloggers (McKenzie, 2008).
Each of these studies has focused on a particular area or issue in blogging research.
The current study wishes to provide a more complete picture of blogs as online spaces
by investigating these areas conjunctively.
Latin American bloggers that maintain a personal blog were chosen as the
population for the study because this part of the international blogosphere has yet to be
investigated at length. Blogs and bloggers have been at the forefront of new media
research in the USA (Hollenbaugh, 2010; Qian and Scott, 2007), Taiwan (Fu et al., 2012;
Ko and Pu, 2011; Li et al., 2009), and Europe (Pedersen, 2009; Trammell et al., 2006;
Viégas, 2005). Yet, few studies have focused on the blogosphere in Latin America
despite the growing size of the bloggers’ population among internet users in this
region. According to the Internet World Stats webpage there were an estimated 175
million internet users in Latin America in 2011, approximately 8.4 per cent of the
world’s internet users’ population. Furthermore, there are an estimated 9.1 million
bloggers in Latin America or 7.2 per cent of the region’s Internet users ( Jeffrey Group,
2008). This is why, understanding blogging behaviour in this growing part of the
blogosphere is significant to social media research.
The aim of the present study is to render a more holistic view of a blog as an online
personal presence by examining five different elements of blogging:
(1) the degree and the nature of the anonymity adopted in the bloggers’
self-presentation;
(2) the frequency and depth of the disclosure of personal information;
(3) the significance of blogs in the bloggers’ lives;
(4) the topics depicted in the blog posts; and
(5) the feelings or reactions that different aspects of blogging elicit in the bloggers.

Literature survey
Blogs as protected spaces
Computer-mediated environments (CME) in general and the internet in particular have
allowed users to create and develop online identities and spaces that occupy neither space
nor time. Blogs are uniquely suited to enable the creation of an online presence. Mitra Personal blogs as
(2008, p. 459) states that when a person creates a blog “a voice has been placed in the online presences
cybernetic space where the traditional limits of real life could be irrelevant”. Unlike
personal homepages that are more static and formal in structure, blogs are dynamic and
interactive. Since they are easily updated, blogs foster spontaneity (Viégas, 2005) and offer
a sense of intimacy that a personal homepage might not (Mitra, 2008). Blogs have become
personal communicative spaces that offer different layers of interactivity which can be 163
controlled or turned off completely. These multiple layers of interactivity create a personal
“protected space” (Gumbrecht, 2005) that tends to be less adversarial and more reflective
in nature where bloggers feel secure and comfortable to write. Blogs allow people to have
more control over the information they disclose leading them to reveal online intimate
information that is not easily expressed in person (Child and Agyerman-Budu, 2010).

Anonymity (or lack of) as a self-presentation strategy

Self-presentation refers to how people present themselves in a variety of ways,
tailoring the images they convey to others that vary according to situational demands
(Goffman, 1959). It is also called impression management, which emphasises people’s
attempts to control how their self is presented (Min and Lee, 2011). The anonymous
and textual nature of the internet facilitates self-presentation and allows individuals to
deal with issues such as gender, ethnicity or religion and to overcome identity flaws or
disabilities. This anonymity inherent in online communications enables individuals to
express themselves freely and behave in ways not permissible or acceptable in their
usual social sphere (Papacharissi, 2002). Online communication allow people to
separate their actions online from their identity in real life because whatever they say
or do online will not necessarily be linked to them. Although bloggers might not
always be anonymous, they are invisible to their audience. The opportunity of being
physically invisible amplifies the freedom and disinhibition that characterises online
communications (Suler, 2004). Although the lack of non-verbal elements in online
communication may render the interaction less rich, it allows individuals to have more
control over the information they disclose and be more inventive in the way they
present themselves online (Bargh et al., 2002).
Self-presentation patterns are closely related to the concept of anonymity that is
defined by Marx (1999) as a state where a person is not identifiable. Blog services offer
users different options of self-presentation in terms of anonymity, bloggers can choose
to be totally anonymous, pseudonymous or identifiable. In both online and offline
environments, anonymity can be either visual or discursive (Qian and Scott, 2007).
Visual anonymity refers to the condition where the physical presence of a message
source cannot be detected due to a lack of any visual representation of a person, such as
pictures or video clips (Barreto and Ellemers, 2002; Lea et al., 2001; Postmes et al.,
2001). Discursive anonymity, on the other hand, refers to the condition where verbal
communication cannot be attributed to a particular source. Although the writing itself
might reveal to a certain degree something about the message source, in an online
environment people usually feel anonymous when their personal information (name,
email, gender, location, etc.) is withheld (Qian and Scott, 2007). In a recent study, Scott
et al. (2011) propose a different definition of anonymity. They posit that social
anonymity is the degree of anonymity that individuals perceive the technology
actually offers.
AP Self-disclosure
65,2 Self-presentation patterns and the type of anonymity bloggers choose to adopt have
a direct impact on the nature of the information disclosed on the blog.
Self-disclosure refers to communication of personal information, thoughts, and
feelings to other people (Archer, 1980). Since self-disclosure can be a frightening
thing that might invite ridicule or rejection people are more likely to disclose
164 personal information to a stranger, therefore not knowing their audience makes
them feel secure that whatever is shared will not reach people in their social sphere.
This is why Bargh et al. (2002, p. 35) compare online communications to the
interactions one may have with “strangers on a train” where someone may disclosed
intimate details of his life to a stranger sitting next to him on a train, details that he
might never share with the people close to him.
Because of the relative anonymity that online interactions may offer, the risks of
self-disclosure may be greatly reduced, and disclosers should be much less fearful of
potential condemnation or rejection (McKenna and Bargh, 1998). In particular,
self-disclosure appears to be prevalent in blogs. Miller and Shepherd (2004) argue that
the rise of blogs as a venue for self-expression is the result of progressive loss of control
over personal information that creates expectation for more information.
Understanding online self-disclosure is important since writing enables people to
relax, enhancing physical health and subjective well-being (Ko and Chen (2009)), to
establish and develop intimacy (Gibbs et al., 2006) and to manage their image online
(Omazu, 2000). Other studies about self-disclosure on blogs have focused on
personality predictors (Guadagno et al., 2007; Hollenbaugh, 2010), psychological and
social predictors (Miura and Yamashita, 2007), the relation between self-disclosure and
interpersonal communication ( Jang and Stefanone, 2011), and the satisfaction of needs
(Chen, 2012).
A number of studies (Miller and Shepherd, 2004; Papacharissi, 2004; Van House,
2004) confirm that blogs serve the purpose of personal expression well and represent
and ideal medium for self-representation and the creation of an online presence. Blogs
have become a communication genre strongly related to individuality,
self-representation and self-disclosure.

Methods
The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions Latin American bloggers
have of a blog as a personal space through the examination of different blogging
elements.

Research questions
.
What type of anonymity is present in the bloggers’ self-presentation strategies?
.
To what extent do bloggers see their blogs as a “personal space” by disclosing
personal information?
.
What is the nature of the blog as a personal space in terms of the subjects
covered, the feelings or reactions that bloggers have when posting or receiving a
comment and the significance of the blog in the blogger’s life?
.
Is there a correlation between gender and age of the bloggers in the above
examined parameters?
Data collection Personal blogs as
The present study investigated different elements in the blogging activity of bloggers online presences
from six different Latin American countries. The findings presented in the study are
taken from an online survey conducted for one month (January 15 to February 15, 2011
(see the Appendix, Figure A1)). Although the survey was developed specially for the
study it incorporated previously documented parameters and its design paralleled
other studies that examined similar subjects. The survey designed was short, simply 165
designed and easy to answer to lessen many of the drawbacks of online questionnaires
(Baron and Siepmann, 2000; Gunn, 2002). It was written in Spanish since it appealed to
a Spanish speaking population. The online questionnaire was divided in four main
sections:
(1) Bloggers’ demographic data: questions addressing the bloggers’ personal data
such as age, time blogging, gender and education.
(2) Self presentation on the blog: questions asking bloggers about different
elements of self- presentation.
(3) Disclosure of personal information: questions asking to what extent bloggers
disclose personal information in their blogs.
(4) Open ended questions: questions requesting that participants describe in their
own words the reactions or feelings elicited by blogging practices, the
significance their blogs have in their lives and the topics they write about in
their blogs.

Description of participants
The sample collected for the study consisted of regularly maintained personal blogs on
the internet written in Spanish. The blogs in the sample were selected from the
following two blog directories:
(1) Blog Directory – www.blogdirectory.com
(2) Blogalaxia – www.blogalaxia.com

These two directories were chosen among several other blog directories because blogs
in two these sites are categorized by country and by type, thus allowing the researcher
to easily identify personal blogs from the different countries. The country pages for
Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador in both directories were
examined to select personal blogs that conformed to the following criteria:
.
The blog was classified in the directory as a personal blog.
.
The blogger identified himself or herself and provided an email address for
contact.
.
The content of the blog was examined and it was confirmed that did not serve
any commercial or marketing purpose.
.
The blog had been updated in the last month.
. Entries for the two selected month must be accessible on the blog site through
archives or continuous postings on the blog main page or other means.

A total of 300 blogs matching the above specified criteria were identified from the specified
country pages at the two directories. This sample represents a census of all personal blogs
AP listed in the specific country pages at two directories. Using the email address provided in
65,2 the blogs, the researcher sent emails to the bloggers inviting them to participate in the
study. The introductory email included a short explanation of the study and the address of
the web site containing the online questionnaire. Because blogging is an online activity,
contacting the bloggers and collecting the data online in their natural setting was the most
effective approach. Of the 300 bloggers initially contacted, 90 responded to the survey,
166 representing a 30 per cent response rate. This response rate concurs with response rates in
other studies about blogging (Guadano et al., 2007; Huang et al., 2007; Yu, 2007). All
participants were Spanish-speaking adults (18 years of age and older).

Data analysis
The survey consisted of a quantitative section designed to produce data for statistical
descriptive analysis that was complemented by a number of open questions in which
participants were asked to explain or extend their answers in their own words. The aim
of the study was not to characterise a particular population of bloggers but rather to
explore information disclosure behaviours in blogging practices therefore
generalisability of the findings was not an aim of the study.
The data analysis consisted of two phases. In the first phase quantitative responses
received from the survey were complied in a Microsoft Excel document and analysed
using descriptive and comparative statistics. This phase yielded quantifiable
demographic data about the participants, descriptive data about the information they
posted on their blogs, the bloggers’ rating about the disclosure of personal information
and statistical data on feelings involved in writing and maintaining a personal blog.
The second phase of the analysis examined the bloggers’ textual answers in which
they described in their own words their feelings towards different aspects of blogging,
the significance of their blogs in their lives and the topics they write about in their blogs.
Textual data were analysed based on the Grounded Theory approach (Glaser and
Strauss, 1967) that posits that theories should be “grounded” in the data collected in the
field and not imposed by a set of predispositions brought about by the researcher. Hence,
a grounded theory is one that is inductively derived from the study of the phenomenon it
represents. One does not begin with a theory, and then prove it. Rather, one begins with
an area of study and what is relevant to that area is allowed to emerge (Strauss and
Corbin, 1990). The intent of a grounded theory study is to explore a situation in which
individuals interact, take actions, or engage in a process in response to a phenomenon.
Three different groups of qualitative data were analysed separately: the reactions or
feelings elicited by blogging practices, the significance their blogs have in their lives
and the topics they write about in their blogs. Each set of data was analysed using
open coding. Following the grounded theory approach, open coding is a technique that
does not impose a fixed taxonomy in advance; instead, categories are creating during
the coding process and describe the data at hand (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The
method consists of identifying concepts and coding them into their respective
categories by constantly comparing them to the properties of the emerging category to
develop and saturate the category. Phrases were selected as the minimal information
unit, they were identified and then coded them into their respective categories by
constantly comparing these phrases to the properties of the emerging category to
develop and saturate the category. The categories that resulted from each analysis are
presented separately following the corresponding research question.
Limitations of the study Personal blogs as
First, because participants self-reported the data, information is potentially biased online presences
since the survey measure was not standardised. Moreover, as is the case in online
surveys, participants might have responded to the survey without sufficient
forethought and therefore their answers might not fully represent their motivations
and feelings about blogging. Second, findings represent only those bloggers who chose
to participate in the study, therefore the sample might not adequately represent the 167
overall population of bloggers who write personal blogs in Latin America. Third,
participants were bloggers living in Latin America, therefore culture and lifestyle
differences may not represent bloggers form other regions in the world.

Results
The following section presents the descriptive data resulting from the statistical
analysis and the categories resulting from the content analysis of the bloggers’ textual
answers.

Description of the participants

The bloggers that participated in the study were individuals who maintain a personal
blog on the internet. Of the 300 bloggers contacted, 90 responded to the invitation to
participate in the study. Table I presents the demographic data on the participants.
Table I shows that the majority of survey bloggers were young people from ages
18-35 (61.1 per cent, n ¼ 55), mostly men, 62.2 per cent (n ¼ 56) with a bachelor’s
degree (83.3 per cent, n ¼ 75). These data concur with findings from three other
bloggers’ studies that investigated the Chinese (Yu, 2007), the North American
(Li, 2005) and the Spanish- speaking (Anonymous, 2009) blogospheres in which the

Blogger background item Percent of total n

Age range
18-24 27.8 25
25-35 33.3 30
36-45 17.8 16
46-55 12.2 11
56-65 6.7 6
65 þ 2.2 2
Gender
Male 62.2 56
Female 37.8 34
Level of education
Grade school education 8.9 8
High school graduate 7.8 7
Bachelor’s degree 62.2 75
Length of time blogging
Less than a year 14.44 13
1-2 years 37.77 34 Table I.
3-4 years 35.54 32 Description of
More than 4 years 12.22 11 participants
AP majority of bloggers were reported to be males between the ages of 18-35 with a college
65,2 education. In addition, the majority of bloggers in this study were experienced bloggers
who had maintained their blog for more than two years.

Self presentation
The first research question examined the issue of bloggers’ self-presentation strategies
168 and the types of anonymity adopted by the bloggers. Almost half the bloggers (47.8 per
cent, n ¼ 43) identified themselves on their blogs using their real names, another 41.1
per cent (n ¼ 37) used a pseudonym and 11.1 per cent (n ¼ 10) presented themselves
using a variant of their real name. Namely, only half of the participants adopted
discursive anonymity as a self-presentation strategy, by not presenting themselves
using their real names on their blogs. Posting a personal photograph on their blog is an
additional way for bloggers to identify and present themselves. Among the bloggers,
the majority (65.6 per cent, n ¼ 59) posted a photograph of themselves on the blog
while 34.4 per cent (n ¼ 31) decided to be visually anonymous and chose not to do so.
Correlation between age and photograph presentation in the blog shows that the
majority of bloggers (78.9 per cent) over 46 years old posted their photograph. No
significant correlation was found between gender and self presentation. An additional
element of self presentation is the different forms of contact bloggers provided for their
readers related to discursive anonymity that involves not being able to identify the
name of a particular source or attribute a message to a particular source. The majority
of bloggers did not seek discursive anonymity since 83.3 per cent (n ¼ 75) posted an
email address on their blogs, 30 per cent (n ¼ 27) have an IM user name and 41.1 per
cent (n ¼ 37) posted a link to their profile in a social network. These findings concur
with previous studies (Herring et al. 2004; Nardi et al., 2004; Viégas, 2005) in which the
majority of bloggers used some form of identification,

Self-disclosure
To investigate the second research question three aspects of the disclosure of personal
information on the posts were examined. Bloggers were asked to rate the depth (level of
intimacy) of personal the information they disclose in their blogs, the frequency of the
disclosure of personal information and to what extent their self-disclosure of personal
information is a conscious act. Table II shows the ratings reported of the depth of the
personal information disclosed in the blog.
Table II shows that only 21.1 per cent (n ¼ 19) of bloggers reported writing about
very personal issues and 55.6 per cent (n ¼ 50) reported disclosing somewhat personal
information. Correlation between age and disclosure of personal information shows
that younger bloggers tend to disclose information they consider more personal. A
total of 28 per cent (n ¼ 7) of bloggers between the ages of 18 to 24 and 33.3 per cent

Disclosure of personal information in blogs Percent of total n

Extremely personal information 5.6 5

Very personal information 21.1 19
Table II. Somewhat personal information 55.6 50
Disclosure of personal I never disclose personal information 17.8 16
information in blogs 100.00 90
(n ¼ 10) of bloggers between the ages of 35 to 34 reported disclosing very personal Personal blogs as
information. All of the bloggers over the age of 46 reported never disclosing very online presences
personal information in their blogs.
The second aspect of self-disclosure examined relates to the frequency in which
bloggers disclose personal information. When asked how often they posted personal
details of their lives on their blogs, 13.3 per cent (n ¼ 12) of bloggers reported
disclosing personal information very frequently, 48.9 per cent (n ¼ 44) reported 169
disclosing personal information often and 27.8 per cent (n ¼ 25) reported never
disclosing personal information in their blogs.
Examining the third aspect of self-disclosure, bloggers were asked how often they
have realized after publishing that they had disclosed information that was too
personal. 51.1 per cent, n ¼ 46) did not believe they had ever disclosed information that
is too personal and 34.4 per cent (n ¼ 31) did not believe they had disclosed
information that is somewhat personal. No significant correlation was found between
gender and the belief that information published was too personal after being
published. Table III shows the correlation between age and frequency of disclosure of
personal information that was considered too personal after publishing.
When correlating age and frequency of disclosure of information believed to be too
personal after publishing, results show that younger bloggers realized they had
disclosed very personal information after publication more frequently than older
bloggers. Table III shows that 20.0 per cent (n ¼ 5) of bloggers between the ages of 18
to 24 and 26.7 per cent (n ¼ 8) of bloggers between the ages of 35-34 reported revealing
information they considered too personal after publication. Moreover, findings show
that bloggers over 46 are more cautious about the information they disclose since 42.1
per cent (n ¼ 8) reported that only occasionally have they disclosed information that
appeared as too personal after publication and 47.4 per cent (n ¼ 9) reported never
encountering this problem.

Blogging topics
The third research question explores the topics depicted in the blogs. The way
bloggers describe the subjects or issues they write about in their blogs provides
another element of the online presence being created on the blogs. Bloggers were asked
to provide natural language terms that describe their blogging topics. The 90
participants provided a total of 357 labels, an average of 3.96 labels per blog.
Linguistically, the labels provided can be divided into four major types. Table III
presents the findings of the linguistic analysis.

age_groups
18-24 25-35 36-45 46 þ Total
Frequency of disclosure % n % n % n % n % n

Always 20.0 5 6.7 2 6.3 1 5.3 1 10.0 9 Table III.

Frequently 8.0 2 26.7 8 6.3 1 5.3 1 13.3 12 Correlation between age
From time to time 48.0 12 46.7 14 62.5 10 42.1 8 48.9 44 and frequency of
Never 24.0 6 20.0 6 25.0 4 47.4 9 27.8 25 disclosure of information
Total within age groups 25 30 16 19 90 considered too personal
Percenatage within age groups 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 after publishing
AP Table IV shows that the majority of labels assigned by Latin American bloggers to
65,2 describe their blogs were nouns (70.86 per cent) and compound nouns (12.04 per cent).
It also presents examples for each linguistic category. Findings show that the labels
chosen by the bloggers to describe the topics they blog about are natural language
words that reflect a wide range of interests and topics. Labels vary from simple nouns
that describe everyday things such as “love,” “friendship,” and “books,” to adjectives
170 that describe some issue (or the post itself) on the blogger’s life such as “offensive,”
“sarcastic,” and “attractive,” and verbs that described the subject of the post as an
action such as “dreaming.” Bloggers also provided geographical and proper names as
labels. Yu (2007) study on the Chinese blogosphere found that family and friends was
the most popular blog topic, followed by arts and culture.
Figure 1 shows a visual representation of the most popular labels provided by the
bloggers called a tag cloud. The size and boldness of the font represent the number of
times it appears in the sample.

Feelings about blogging

The second element investigated in the third research question are the bloggers’
feelings or reactions to different blogging activities. The interactivity of blogging is

Linguistic breakdown Percentage n Common responses

Simple nouns 70.86 253 Personal, work, photographs, recipes, window

Compound nouns (phrases) 12.04 43 Social responsibility, international politics,
augmented reality, daily life
Adjectives 5.88 21 Happy, different, offensive, creative
Table IV. Geographical names 4.76 17 Cuba, Medellin, Mexico, Cusco
Linguistic analysis of Names 5.32 19 Michael Foucault, Carlos Saavedra, Twitter, Tarot
tags Verbs 1.12 4 Living, struggling, resisting, dreaming

Figure 1.
Participants’ labels cloud
based on the blogger posting a comment and receiving a reaction or comment from Personal blogs as
readers. Bloggers’ were asked to describe their feelings about posting new information online presences
and about receiving comments from readers.
Most respondents showed a positive reaction when adding a new post and selected
“satisfied” (47.8 per cent, n ¼ 43). Other responses were: “drained” (15.6 per cent,
n ¼ 14), “positive” (13.3 per cent, n ¼ 12), “excited” (10.0 per cent, n ¼ 9), “relieved”
(2.2 per cent, n ¼ 2), “hopeful” (3.3 per cent, n ¼ 3), and “no special feeling” (4.4 per 171
cent, n ¼ 4). Four people (4.1 per cent) chose to write in the way they felt. Responses
centred on themes of expectation of seeking reactions from others and happiness.
When asked about the reactions or feeling that their readers’ comments elicited in them
the majority of bloggers (75.6 per cent n ¼ 51) reported being only slightly affected by
their readers’ comments. Only one-third of the bloggers (31.6 per cent n ¼ 6) over 46
years old reported being highly affected by their readers’ comments. Positive or
supportive comments from their readers left a third of respondents (32.2 per cent,
n ¼ 29) feeling “pleased”. In descending order, the remaining participants felt
“honoured” (22.2 per cent, n ¼ 20), “valued” (14.4 per cent, n ¼ 13), “connected” (14.4
per cent, n ¼ 13), “excited” (8.9 per cent, n ¼ 8), and “important” (1.1 per cent, n ¼ 1).
Four people (4.4 per cent) reported that positive comments did not elicit any particular
feeling. Negative comments or criticism to one of their posts left 41.1 per cent (n ¼ 37)
elicited in the bloggers feelings of “anger”. In descending order, the remaining
participants felt “important” (13.3 per cent, n ¼ 12), “upset” (11.1 per cent, n ¼ 10),
“honoured” (10.0 per cent, n ¼ 9), and “excited” (3.3 per cent, n ¼ 3), 21.1 per cent,
(n ¼ 19) of participants reported not being affected by negative comments. This
question elicited the highest number of write-in responses. A total of 20 people chose to
use their own words to describe their feelings after receiving a negative comment to
one of their posts. Some participants did not find their feelings in the list provided, and
chose to write in how they felt, using words such as “surprised,” “happy,” and
“satisfied” for positive reactions and “sad,” “confused,” “angry,” “worried,”
“frustrated,” “misunderstood” for negative reactions. Other write-in responses
valued the negative comments, interpreting them as constructive criticism that
could help them improve their blog “I always try to evaluate the comments and if they
are reasonable I take them into account”, considering the public nature of their blogs “a
blog in principle is open to allow readers to express their ideas freely” and
acknowledging the fact that comments allow bloggers to connect with their audiences
“I’m satisfied to know other opinions”. The majority of participants (60 per cent,
n ¼ 54) said the lack of comments on their posts did not affected them. In descending
order, the remaining participants selected anxious (10 per cent, n ¼ 9), upset (7.8 per
cent n ¼ 7), insignificant (5.6 per cent, n ¼ 5), hopeful (2.2 per cent, n ¼ 2), relieved (1.1
per cent, n ¼ 1). A total of 12 people chose to write in their responses which centred on
feelings of concern, frustration, sadness and confusion brought by the lack of
comments.
The last element in the third research question asked participants to describe in
their own words the meaning their blogs have in their lives. The open coding analysis
based on the grounded theory approach revealed four different categories. The
following section provides an description for each category and presents a few
representative examples of the participants’ textual answers.
AP (1) My blog is a part of me. Some participants regard their blog as a very significant
65,2 element in their lives, more than just a place to publish information.
Participants describe their blogs as:
.
. . . a basic element in my creative life.
.
. . . like an X-ray of my life.
172 .
. . . a reflection of myself on the internet.
(2) My blog is a communication tool. Participants view their blogs as a major
communication tool through which they can express their feelings and
thoughts, a tool that helps them share information and connect with people with
whom they have something in common:
.
My blog means a lot to me, is a way of achieving catharsis and
communication.
.
[My blog is] a window through which I can express myself.
.
[My blog is] a window through which people can get to know me.
(3) My blog is a writing tool. Some participants describe their blog as a tool to
practice and improved their writing skills:
.
[My blog is] an easy way to do something that I love, that is to write.
.
My blog is like a therapy. Since I started writing my blog I realized that
writing is very good for me.
.
[my blog is]. . . a long-term writing project.
(4) My blog is my favorite hobby. Some participants regarded their blogs has a
hobby, something to do in their free time:
.
My blog is my passion and my hobby.
.
. . . a fun way to spend my time.
.
. . . a distraction in time of leisure.

The findings presented in this section show that half of the bloggers adopted
discursive anonymity by not identifying themselves using their real names while the
majority of the bloggers chose not to be visually anonymous by posting a personal
photograph on their blogs. A significant correlation was found between age and
disclosure of personal information since younger bloggers disclosed highly personal
information more frequently. Moreover, findings indicate that visual anonymity might
negatively influence the degree and frequency of disclosure of personal information
since the majority of older bloggers posted a personal photograph but refrained from
disclosing highly personal information. The labels with which bloggers describe the
subjects they write about reveal their blogs as a venue of self expression that allows
bloggers to write about their everyday lives that reflects on the description of the blog
as a communication tool and as a part of the blogger’s life. The roles assigned to the
blogs by the bloggers focused on self-expression, communication and leisure

Discussion
This study investigated blogs as virtual spaces were Latin American bloggers created
an online presence. Bloggers who participated in this study were asked to self-report on
a number of factors related to their blogging activities: the way they present Personal blogs as
themselves on their blogs, the frequency and nature of the personal information they online presences
disclose, their feelings or reactions when posting and receiving a comment, the
significance their blogs have in their lives and the subjects they blog about. In general,
the demographic data on participants in this study is consistent with findings from
previous bloggers’ surveys (Herring et al., 2005; Viégas, 2005) where the majority of
participants were young adult males with a college education. 173
The way bloggers present themselves in their blogs and the nature of the
information they choose to disclosure are central issues in understanding the creation
of an online presence on cyberspace. A large percentage of bloggers that participated in
this study did not opted for either visual or discursive anonymity by identifying
themselves in their blog by their real name, by posting a personal photograph, and by
providing several forms of contact. These findings coincide with Hollenbaugh’s (2010)
study in which bloggers chose not to be visually anonymous and behaved similarly
online as they did offline. I would like to argue that a considerable number of bloggers
in this study did not feel the need to hide their identity because the attenuation of
physical distance that characterises online communications allowed them to be social
anonymous, that is, they took advantage of the anonymity that technology offers (Scott
et al., 2011). Lee et al.’s (2008) study supports this finding and posits that since
self-disclosure depends on the perception that the information divulged is secured,
blogs are perceived as protected spaces because they provide a dyadic (i.e. safe)
boundary within which self-disclosure is considered secured. This boundary is created
by the physical invisibility that characterises online communications that facilitates
self-expression and gives bloggers the power over the content on their blogs and over
the identity they choose to reveal or conceal from their audience. This is the reason
why, feeling protected on their blogs, bloggers in this study published their real names,
posted a personal photograph on their blogs and/or provided a contact point. This
tendency towards self-presentation also was found in other studies (Chen, 2012;
Herring et al., 2004; Nardi et al., 2004; Viégas, 2005). This point can be further
illustrated by the participants’ comments that described their blogs “as a part of me” or
as “a reflection of myself on the internet.”
Regarding the issue of self-disclosure, bloggers were asked to rate the depth (level of
intimacy) of personal the information they disclose in their blogs, the frequency of the
disclosure of personal information and to what extent their self-disclosure of personal
information is a conscious act. Findings show that a large percentage of bloggers
disclosed some kind of personal information frequently. No correlation was found
between gender and the depth or frequency of self-disclosure. This finding contradicts
Hollenbaugh’s (2010, p. 1664) study that found women “tended to be high on
disclosiveness, writing primarily for themselves to archive and organize their
thoughts”. When correlating age and self-disclosure findings in this study revealed
that age negatively impacts bloggers’ self-disclosure, with younger bloggers revealing
the most personal information on their blogs, concurring with previous studies
(Lenhart and Fox, 2006; Ma and Leung, 2006). However, contrary to Qian and Scott’s
(2007) study in which visual anonymity did not influence self-disclosure, findings in
this study show that the majority of older bloggers did not opted for visual anonymity
(i.e. posted a personal photograph on their blog) and reported very low or non-existing
levels of self-disclosure. Findings on self-disclosure patters revealed in this study show
AP that personal blogs are carefully edited rather than “tell-all” accounts of the bloggers’
65,2 lives, echoing Krasnova et al.’s (2010) claim that bloggers engage in “a conscious
‘privacy calculus’” when cognitively deciding whether or not to self-disclose.
To understand the participants’ subjective view of what their blog is about,
bloggers were asked to label the subjects they write about in their blogs. The
assumption behind this request was that labeling an item is an individual’s expression
174 of how the object is represented in his or her mental construction. The labels provided
reflected a wide range of subjects, actions, and emotions that symbolize a reflection of
the bloggers’ lives as they perceive it. Lenhart and Fox (2006) also found that the
majority of bloggers surveyed blogged on many different subjects. Findings from this
study reveal that the majority of the labels in the data were nouns describing different
aspects of the bloggers’ everyday lives and personal interests and hobbies as well as
adjectives describing events or situations and verbs describing activities. These
findings echo Trammel and Keshelashvili (2005) and Trammell et al. (2006) studies that
made a content analysis of the topics depicted in Polish blogs and found that they
represent a unique medium that enable bloggers to establish an online presence by
being a reflection of their offline persona.
Bloggers’ feelings towards blogging and the significance blogs have in their lives
were also investigated. Bloggers were asked to describe their feelings when they
posted new information on their blogs and when their readers commented (or not
commented) on their posts. Bloggers in this study described their reactions to positive
comments as feeling honoured and valued by their readers and few noted that it was
important for them to know that their readers identified with their opinions. Bloggers
also expressed feelings of expectation to the prospects of comments from their readers.
These findings coincide with data revealed in McKenzie’s (2008) study that found that
when updating new information on their blogs, most participants reported having
positive feelings such as satisfaction and excitement and others reported having
feelings of relief and exhaustion. Lee et. al.’s (2008) study concurs with these findings
and reveals that self-disclosure on blogs elicit positive feelings and a sense of
enjoyment on bloggers. Ko and Chen (2009) also found that bloggers obtain positive
emotional benefits through self-disclosure that have significant influence in their
perception of subjective well-being.
When asked about their feelings when they received negative comments, several
bloggers felt the need to describe their feelings in their own words, and participants in
McKenzie’s study had the same reaction. However, unlike McKenzie’s findings that
showed that bloggers rejected negative comments or were indifferent or amused by
them, bloggers in this study described feeling angry and frustrated, but they also
acknowledge the value of the negative comments as a way to get to know their readers’
opinions. Bloggers’ reactions to comments on their posts are closely related to the
motivation of socialisation and to the motivation of self-expression that is driven by the
bloggers’ need for self-reaffirmation (Hollenbaugh, 2010; Nardi et al., 2004; Walker,
2000). It is noteworthy to note that 60 per cent of bloggers reported not being affected
by the lack of comments from their readers. This finding supports Schiano et al.’s
(2004) study that posits that the blogger’s primary audience is the blogger him/herself
because blogging is often used as an outlet for thoughts and feelings and Miller and
Shepherd’s (2004) assertion that blogging is some kind of “private writing,” one that
allows the writer to write freely and value his or her writing without having to worry
about the reactions of others. This point is strengthened by the description of a blog by Personal blogs as
participants as a “part of them”. online presences
The significance bloggers assigned to their blogs is also connected to the different
motivations for blogging found in the literature. When asked to describe in their own
words what significance their blogs have in their lives, bloggers in this study described
their blogs as: being a part of their selves, a communication tool, a writing tool and a
favourite hobby. Bloggers relate to their blogs as a part of their online identity because 175
blogs can become an emotional outlet or a positive way to channel their feelings and
frustrations (Lee et al., 2008; Nardi et al., 2004). As Nardi et al. (2004, p. 44) notes “The
format of frequent posts, diary-style, was both outlet and stimulus for working through
personal issues”. In addition, blogs can act as communications tools because bloggers
are motivated to blog to meet people that share their interests and to be a part of a
community. Altman and Taylor (1973) argues that self-disclosure plays an important
part in the establishment of human relationships that evolve in a process of
progressive and reciprocal deepening of the mutual self-disclosure, that is, the process
of socialisation occurs when readers comment or provide feedback to the bloggers’
posts. Interestingly, contrary to other studies (Bronstein, 2012; Hollenbaugh, 2010)
participants did not regard their blog as a tool to document their lives.
Bloggers also described their blogs as writing tools. The attractiveness of practicing
one’s writing skills by blogging is directly related to the medium appeal, that is, to the
facility of creating new content and sharing it with others to read and react to it. Nardi
et al. (2004, p. 227) described the need to write as “thinking by writing”, and claimed
that people worked through their writing process by blogging and found out whether
they had something interesting to say. Concurring with the findings of this study,
several studies found that bloggers related to their blogs a favourite hobby (Bronstein,
2012; Hollenbaugh, 2011; Lee et al., 2008; Li, 2005; Trammell et al., 2006).

Conclusions
Blogs present a technology that creates a unique form of expression within the
available technologies on cyberspace. They are versatile and friendly media that
facilitate and support the creation of a virtual presence on the Internet and provide a
safe haven for people who need or want to use online technologies to fulfill different
needs. The study reveals that the online presences created in the blogs have an
important role in the bloggers’ lives as an venue for self-expression, as a medium for
socialisation and as a documenting tool. Bloggers reported frequently disclosing
personal information in the blogs and the labels they assign to this information reflect
a wide variety of subjects and interests that are in many ways a reflection of the
bloggers’ lives.
In sum, the study show that Latin American bloggers were able to reconcile
between the private elements of an online presence perceived as a secure and protected
space with the public nature of blogs as online technologies.

Recommendation for further research

Additional research is needed to understand information disclosure patterns of
different bloggers’ populations that have yet to be investigated. Moreover, it will be
interesting to research self-presentation and self-disclosure patterns in different social
media such as social networks and micro-blogging sites for example.
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Further reading
Mortensen, T. and Walker, J. (2002), “Blogging thoughts: personal publication as an online
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citizenship, and the future of media”, in Chouliaraki, L. (Ed.), Self-mediation: New Media,
Citizenship and the Self, Routledge, London.
Papachirissi, Z. and Rubin, A.M. (2000), “Predictors of internet use”, Journal of Broadcasting and
Electronic Media, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 175-96.
AP
65,2

180

Figure A1.
The study’s survey
 Personal blogs as
online presences

181

Figure A1.

Petersen, J. (2001), “Citizens and spokesmen: politics and personal expression on the web”,
in Chidambaram, L. and Zigurs, I. (Eds), Our Virtual World: The Transformation of Work,
Play and Life via Technology, Idea Group, Hershey, PA, pp. 152-65.

Appendix

About the author

Jenny Bronstein received her PhD in 2006 from the Department of Information studies at Bar Ilan
University (Israel). Her research interests are in the application of social technologies in libraries,
To
self purchase reprints
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on e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com
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