Blogging: Self Presentation and Privacy

It was interesting to learn in this study that over half of the participants (62.6%) were blogging for social interaction. There were several great points brought up in this article in relation to privacy and expression. We read about the different types of privacy as well as how social construction plays in on how we feel comfortable expressing ourselves or disclosing personal information. There was the example of how if we didn't have these types of privacy that our relationships wouldn't differ between those with our mothers and those with our employers. I think that it's hard to make that assumption simply because there are still aspects of affection and nurture that we get out of our family members that we don't have with others due to how much time we spend with them, but I can understand what this means in relation to privacy. Basically privacy is what plays a huge role in our everyday lives. We do and don't do many of our actions because of privacy. Expressive privacy was found to be crucial in the way that bloggers value their privacy. In my personal life I have never felt comfortable creating a blog or uploading videos of myself onto any web forums, but I have made an interesting connection between this article and my personal life. When I had to create a blog for this course I felt comfortable doing so because I knew my audience would be classmates and my professor. I have become used to uploading videos of myself for educational purposes, but I know that I would not be comfortable putting these videos onto YouTube or a similar Internet site.