Gender, identity, and language Use: A case of Tehrani teenage bloggers’ virtual speech community

This study examines issues of online identity and language use among Tehrani male and female teenagers virtual speech community who created and maintained weblogs, personal journals made publicly accessible on the World Wide Web. Online identity and language use were examined in terms of the disclosure of personal information, gender identity, emotive features, and semantic themes. Tehrani Male and female teenagers presented themselves similarly in their blogs, often revealing personal information such as their real names, ages, and locations. Males more than females employed an active and resolute style of language, and were more likely to present themselves as an authority. But females tended to use more emoticons and polite language. The results suggest that in virtual speech communities teenagers stay closer to reality in their online expressions of self than has previously been suggested, and that these explorations involve issues, such as learning about their identity, that commonly occur during the adolescent years.