Anonymity and self-disclosure on weblogs-Hua Qian & Craig R. Scott

Blogs are often used for educational purposes, business/marketing relations and as well for political purposes.  These blogs are used for more then these reasons though, with the majority being used for personal use.  The personal use of blogs allows individuals to put their thoughts and ideas down in a journal/diary like format on line.  It is a way for people to experiment and relate to others their personality and personal views.  This study shows that 70% of all blogs are of the personal kind (Qian, Scott 2007:1429).

Anonymity is key in the online world.  Some people prefer to be private and anonymous while other members of these types of blogs have been very public and undisclosed about their views and ideals.  The Authors discuss the aspect of anonymity with regards to privacy and the relation it plays with the type of technology being used.  Certain types of sites allow for more privacy than that of others.

Blogs and self-disclosure are a main factor in personal identity online.  One chooses to disclose thoughts or feelings about certain topics or people which can in turn be a negative aspect of blogs where one may be judged or marginalized for those ideals or thoughts by other members of the blogging community.  A key paragraph in this article (I think) :

Although research has shown that self-disclosure plays an important role in intimacy developed in interpersonal exchanges (Derlega et al.,1993; Perlman & Fehr, 1987), people also tend to be heavily invested in the enterprise of impression management.  Disclosing one's inner world, where typically there are socially embarrassing or unspeakable facts and morally suspicious or unjustifiable emotions, represents a grave risk of jeopardizing others' impression of the discloser, thereby diminishing the likelihood of reward, increasing the chance of punishment, and lowering the level of self-esteem (see Leary & Kowalski, 1990; Schlenker, 1980). 

This means that there are repercussions of disclosing certain facts and intimacies online.  One can be wary and choose not to disclose information but one also has the choice to disclose anything if they so wish - even with these risks at hand.  

This study shows that most people will be  selective when posting highly personal details online and will take measures when doing so, by posting blogs with a fake name or not being identified by a picture as this can show personal aspects of the individual and disclose certain aspects of their true identity to other bloggers.