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Original Article
Web Technologies of the Self: The Arising of the “Blogger” Identity
Article first published online: 9 JUL 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01581.x
© 2012 International Communication Association
Additional Information
How to Cite
Siles, I. (2012), Web Technologies of the Self: The Arising of the “Blogger” Identity. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17: 408–421. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01581.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 9 JUL 2012
- Article first published online: 9 JUL 2012
- Manuscript Accepted: 14 JUL 2011
- Manuscript Revised: 2 JUN 2011
- Manuscript Received: 2 MAR 2011
- Abstract
- Article
- References
- Cited By
Keywords:
- Blogs;
- Co-construction;
- Identity;
- Materiality;
- Michel Foucault;
- Online Diaries;
- Subjectivity;
- Technologies of the Self
Drawing on Michel Foucault's theories of subjectivity, this paper conceptualizes early blogging and online diary writing as “technologies of the self,” that is, procedures through which practitioners enacted certain identities as Internet users. This study combines archival research, close analysis of websites, and interviews with their creators. It analyzes how the most defining practices associated with the emergence of these websites in the second half of the 1990s enabled the performance of specific modes of identification for their users, expressed by concepts such as the “online diarist” and the “blogger.” The study broadens our understanding of technologies of the self by considering the role of websites as artifacts in processes of self-formation on the Internet.