The Shaping Of Cyber And Offline Identities Through Blogging

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Recommended: Compare Real Identity Versus Online Identity

Blogging can be defined as the process of creating, maintaining, and updating a web journal (web log) and the consequences of the process. It involves reading, writing, more reading, commenting, and other technical aspects of maintaining a blog. Individuals blog for several reasons. One of the most popular reasons is to easily publish and get readers for the his/her writings. There is no pestering editor, and there is no screening process. Anything (s)he needs to convey can be published into the blogosphere with the click of a button, and could reach out to millions of readers. A few other people say that they blog because they "just love to blog/write".

An estimated 70% of the blogosphere consists of personal blogs. Personal blogs are where bloggers write about their personal lives, as opposed to niche blogs. Such personal blogs induce a kind of voyeuristic pleasure in the reader, and an exhibitionistic pleasure in the blogger. Blogging analysts had recently come up with a proposition, where in they compared blogging to pornography. According to them, a personal blogger shed privacy, layer by layer, much like a stripper. From my personal experience, I’ve found this statement to be true. First the blogger blogs under an alias, usually revealing only his/her country of origin. Then, as commentators increase, (s)he reveals his/her first name. Followed by what he/she is doing, his/her second name, his/her interests and so on. After about 6-7 months (unaccounted estimate - from my experience in the blogosphere) (s)he starts blogging about extremely personal moments. (S)he feels good that someone is reading his/her blog, which is exhibitionism in its true sense. Indeed, this exhibitionism may not be purely textual, since blogging supp...

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... like the identity we attribute to a person who reads a particular newspaper. The identity of the blog, and the blogger, rubs off on the reader.

Thus, blogging online and offline identities are shaped through the process of blogging. These identities include the blogger, the reader, the commentor, and the blog.

References

1. “…blogging has much to do with ego.” – D’Souza, Dilip. “Blog In, Blog Out” in “Digital Culture Unplugged : probing the native Cyborg’s multiple locations”. Edited by Rajan, Nalini. Routledge, 2007. England. Page 153.

Bibliography

1. “Digital Culture Unplugged : probing the native Cyborg’s multiple locations”. Edited by Nalini Rajan. Routledge, 2007. England.

2. “The Cyber Cultures Reader”. Edited by Bell, David and M. Kennedy, Barbara. Routledge, 2007. England.

3. Mr Anil Joseph Pinto, lecturer, Media Studies Department, Christ College.

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