Why do people post and read personal messages in public? The motivation of using personal blogs and its effects on users’ loneliness, belonging, and well-being

The purpose of the current paper is to develop a theoretical model that identifies why people blog personal content and explains the effects of blogging in “real life.” Data from an online survey are analyzed using maximum likelihood procedures in LISREL 8.75 to test the structural model. Among 531 respondents from Cyworld, a popular social network and blogging site in South Korea, a randomly selected group of 251 users was used to develop the model. The other group of 280 users was used to confirm the usefulness of the revised model. Results (N = 251; N = 280) showed that impression management and voyeuristic surveillance are two major psychological factors that motivate individuals to post and read messages on personal blogs. Results also showed evidence for blogging’s real life consequences, measured by users’ perceived social support, loneliness, belonging, and subjective well-being.

► The study examined motivations and consequences of using personal blogs. ► Impression management was related to reading from and posting to personal blogs. ► Voyeuristic surveillance was related to reading from personal blogs. ► Using personal blogs was positively related to perceived social support online. ► Online social support was positively related to well-being and belonging and negatively related to loneliness.