Presentation of Self in Electronic Life

<>Whereas we once created identies primarily in face to face contexts (Goffman) today, people also go about presenting themselves in an online environment.  Such tools as diaries, web rings, journals, games etc. are often used. For example: http://anonequity.org/weblog/ or http://www.successful-blog.com/1/personal-identity-forgiveness/

My own experience has been that my blog has helped me see what I am interested in and how I treat those interests.  This is similar to what Rebecca Blood reports as her experience, too. [ find in page: "side effects"] .  My blogging changes with my interests and purposes.  For example, my now discontinued blogs, one of which was http://wspeak.blogspot.com/.   I was conscious of the fact that I have promised to examine in my blog how the present administration uses and abuses communication systems.  I was also conscious that the page linking to my blog clearly identifies me as a scholar of communication, so I felt I should present, as much as possible, a scholarly face.  The positive effect was that I was pretty careful in my writing, often re-editing a blog a day or so after posting and if I found mistakes in my writing.  The negative effect was that playing my role diminished my expression of the emotions I  felt as I privileged a more rational self.

More recently, I created a blog to document my sabbatical in England (http://englishaccent.blogspot.com/).  The context, I felt, allowed me opportunity for more disclosure than my previous blogs.  However, since it was related to my academic sabbatical, I looked for opporutnities to raise issues about communication. 

So, I suggest creating new blogs when your purposes change--create a new space and persona to contextualize your writing.