Factors influencing Bloggers' perceived indentifiability

Abstract

Prior research found that the majority of blogs are personal and relational in nature where bloggers reveal intimate information about themselves and target their public posts to their off-line social networks. These personal-journal style blogs expose their authors to potential privacy risks. Bloggers may choose to conceal their identities to mitigate the privacy concerns or disclose their identities for positive relational communication. This study explores the impacts of personal traits and perceived communication context on bloggers' decision of identity disclosure. Data were collected via an online survey of 148 randomly selected bloggers. Results showed that self disclosure tendency and targeting blogs at family and close friends were positive predictors to bloggers' perceived identifiability. In addition, self disclosure tendency and extraversion were found to moderate the relationship between bloggers' perceived vulnerability and identifiability. The implications on privacy management and relational communication online are discussed.