Presentation of self on the Web: an ethnographic study of teenage girls’ weblogs

Abstract

Through their use of weblogs, teenage girls are bridging their offline and online relationships. As the girls use this medium to construct themselves and their relationships, they must address the dual nature of weblogs as a tool for interpersonal communication and mass communication. This study examines two aspects of teen girls’ blog use: (1) challenges and hazards of conducting interpersonal communication in a mass medium, and (2) self‐presentation strategies used to negotiate a dual audience. Methodology for the study included an ethnographic study of 40 weblogs, an in‐depth analysis of six weblogs and a set of 13 in‐depth interviews.

Notes

Blogspot is the hosting site for Blogger.com.

However, the teens in this study did not appear to be close friends with everyone they link to. This was determined by whether or not the ‘friend’ was mentioned in any of the blog postings. In many cases, someone linked from the blog was not necessarily mentioned when the blogger wrote about friends.

All names used in this study have been changed.

Both Stephanie and Jennifer began blogging in November 2002, but Jennifer's blog would not let me access the November postings. I began by reading her December 2002 posts. Megan and Stasia abandoned old blogs and began posting in new blogs in April 2003. Stasia first posted in May 2003. Anna's first posting date is unknown. Only her posts from September 2003 and later were available in her archives.

To protect the girls’ privacy, direct quotes from their blogs will not be used in this paper. A simple search on a direct quote in a search engine would reveal the identities of the girls.

The names are not included in this write‐up to protect the girls’ identities.

Blog surveys are different from Internet quizzes. The quizzes were taken on another web site and only the results were published on the blog.