Amir-Ebrahimi 341is some coherence in the blog and the constructed identity. However, over
the past seven years of Weblogistan’s existence, the use of pseudonyms
is rapidly decreasing, especially among some sociopolitical bloggers who
seek to have more impact in the real world. But the trend of fake identities
and pseudonyms remains, especially among youth and women who are
writing about their personal life.
The construction of self in the Iranian blogosphere
In the process of the construction of the self in Weblogistan, three factors
play an important role: daily writings, the existence of an archive, and
permanent exposure to others’ opinions through the comment section.
These three factors can not only give individuals a broader conception of
self but can also allow for the emergence of an entirely new self-narrative.
The Italian writer Erri de Luca in his novel “Rez-de-Chaussée” gives an
interesting perspective on the importance of writing in general and the
process of self-discovery in particular:
Every one of us has hidden multitudes within ourselves, even
though, with the passage of time, we are drawn to transform-
ing this multiplicity into a groundless individual. We are
forced to remain individuals and have only one name to which
we are accountable. Therefore, we have habituated the diverse
personalities within ourselves to silence. Writing helps us to
rediscover them.^39s insight can be usefully applied to bloggers who are writing Thi
regularly. Through these daily and ongoing narratives, bloggers discover
new angles of their lives and personalities that had been unknown even to
themselves. Shabah (Specter) is a middle-aged educated male whose fre-
quent and active presence in virtual space has garnered him a wide read-
ership, especially among young bloggers. Even though given his gender
and age, Shabah can enjoy more freedoms than women and more stability
than youth, he believes that blogging has changed him and that continu-
ous interaction with his readers has released an inner “me” of which he
was previously unaware: