Self Presenation and Personality

Self presenation on blogs and personal websites

What does your blog for this assignment or you personal website say about you? Are you narcissistic and extraverted or are you open to experience and neurotic? Authors of personal websites include large amounts of personal information on their web pages. Website owners design their pages with the intent to give an observer an idea of who they are, an impression of who they are. This can be in the form of a text narrative, photos, color selections, interests, links to other pages, or video clips. Some internet users and researchers view “personal web sites as a garbage depository, filled with useless information that mainly serves the purpose of demonstrating the owner’s vanity” (Marcus, Machileck, Schütz, 2006, p. 1014). Others believe that website authors are exhibitionists that crave attention or introverted individuals who find comfort in computer-mediated communication (Marcus, et al., 2006). The internet is a medium for self-presentation and expression. As the technology of computer-mediated communication evolves, internet users are inspired to invent new uses for the technology in communication and entertainment. Personal websites began consisting mostly of text and minimal visual effects. Now, these digital identity pages have evolved into professional looking works of art utilizing the latest technology that exposes as much information about the author as viewing his or her bedroom or office (Vazire & Gosling, 2002).

Studying online self-presentation focuses on an individual’s presentation style in a personal website, blog, or in chat rooms. The presentation style and the amount of details displayed online gives the observer a great deal of information about the presenter (Marcus, Machileck, & Schütz, 2006). Personal websites are abundant in information where the author explores self-presentation identities and observers form ideas of a person’s personality traits. Vazire and Gosling (2004) found that “personal websites provide more information than brief interactions, but less than long-term acquaintanceships” (p. 129). Websites do not provide traditional nonverbal social cues usually present in face-to-face communication. It is limited to the edited information the author wants to present. However, the impressions of a variety of personality traits that the observer forms of the website author are surprisingly accurate (Marcus, et al., 2006; Papacharisi, 2002).Despite the narcissistic reputation, studies have found that website authors do not differ significantly from the rest of the population (Marcus, et al., 2006). A study conducted by Marcus et al. compared website owners to the general population and compared them to non-website owners. The study found that website owners scored slightly higher on openness to experience and lower on extraversion (Marcus et al.). In a general population of students, female students scored less on narcissism and self-monitoring than male students (Marcus et al.). However, Marcus et al. revealed that female students who are also website owners are “almost identical to male website owners on these traits” (p. 1021). Websites, designed by the author, contain “both the authors’ ‘true’ personalities and … ideal-self views,” (Vazire & Gosling, 2004) from which observers form a personality-type of the author (p. 130). Vazire and Gosling found that the observers’ impressions from information on personal websites are accutate.


See blogs: Blogorreah, Neurastenia

Other readings:
Jill/txt is a research blogger, associate professor at the University of Bergen, researches how people tell stories online. Categories include: How to create blogs and Blog theorizing.

Sean Rahman, Michigan State University created Blogs for Learning. Topics include: Self-presentation online and Criminals caught online.

References:
Marcus, B., Machileck, F., & Schütz, A. (2006). Personality in cyberspace: Personal web sites as media for personality expressions and impressions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 1014-1031.

Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The presentation of self in virtual life: Characteristics of personal home pages. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79, 643-660.

Vazire, S. & Gosling, S. D. (2004). E-perceptions: Personality impressions based on personal websites. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 123-132.