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Diary Writing in Cyberspace
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Weblog writing in Iran dates back to Khordad 1381 solar hijri (May 2001) when the first weblog service provider – persianblog – started its work. Weblog writing in Iran grew rapidly in a short time and at present the number of Iranian weblog writers has gone well over one million and according to figures, Iran ranks among the world’s top 10 countries in weblog writing.
If we review the process of weblog writing in Iran in three stages, diary writing will be placed in its second one. At first, weblog writing was a collection of links and the descriptions corresponding the writer’s interest. Then, the weblogs came into existence which were more or less personal diary notebook. And in continuation, professional blogs in various fields such as astronomy, journalism, religion, politics and so on were created.
At present, among the weblogs created by Iranians and placed in cyberspace on a daily basis, large portion of them are in the field of personal notes and diary writing and have their own special audience.
The important point is that why many Iranians have turned to diary writing in cyberspace and why they do not write their personal diaries in their own personal notebooks?
Some blog writers are against diary writing in blogs and believe that weblog is an important medium which can be allocated to more serious fields. Such people usually protest to diary writing in the weblogs:
“It seems that some people have mistaken weblogs with their own diaries, expressing the memoirs which have no benefit for the viewer.”
Although diary writing in cyberspace has advantages which are not possible in personal notebooks for example the possibility of advanced search in all the materials or the inclusion of images in the writings, in fact, such factors cannot be considered as the motivation for cyber diary writers.
Many diary writers in cyberspace have reasons for their action, expressing them in their weblogs, reasons like taking lessons, mental drain and so on. For example, we can refer to the following cases:
“For the sake of my own heart, and for I may remember the atmosphere of these days one day … hi, here is merely for me, so if you probably know me or are a friend of mine, know that I do not explain about any of the written posts, so please don’t ask me any question.”
“I have created this weblog to say my words (the words that I cannot say anywhere else).”
“Since I suffered many hardships in my life, I have entitled my weblog as diary writing in order to write my bittersweet memoirs in it and to be a cyber space for mental drain of the friends who have suffered hardships like me… I have decided to empty part of my mental pressure on the weblog and Persianblog.”
It is interesting to know that diary writing is one of the ways of mental drain and some of the writers of diary weblogs at the request of psychiatrists resort to write their memoirs in the cyberspace for mental drain.
Regarding the higher figures of weblog writing in Iran, some are of the opinion that it has political reason and that lack of freedom of speech has increased weblog writing. But a review of Ziaee Parvar’s research carried out in 1384 (2005) on 100 Iranian weblogs in the method of content analysis, shows that Iranian weblogs have social aspect and expression of personal memoirs rather than political one. Also, expression of political issues in diary writing plays a lower and marginal role. In fact, diary writing in cyberspace and its motivation need to be linked to the culture of Iranians.
For instance, we can refer to the latent feature of desire in dialogue in Iranian culture and one of the unique features of Iranians is their penchant to talking and commenting in dialogue. Discussion and dialogue for Iranians is not a mere entertainment or lounging, but one of the most important and basic parts of individual and collective life. One of the advantages of diary writing in cyberspace than writing memoirs in personal notebooks is this possibility of putting comments and expressing viewpoints. As it is seen those who put comments for the writer, they express their memoirs and similar experiences in a way that confabulation and mental drain would become possible.
Another feature that can be referred to is the desire to narcissism and interest in dissemination of “ego” and reconstruction of self-identity which would become possible through diary writing in weblogs.
On the other hand, it can be referred that diary writing in the weblogs have set the stage for the individuals to disclose their inside intentions without the disclosure of their identity. Iranians have always avoided to disclose their inside intentions, but at present, they can express their memoirs and exchange views with others about them and even say the words which are not ready to express in real interaction.
The space of diary writing in the weblogs is in a way that causes the individuals to show their real spirits, reducing the social hypocrisy.
One of the important benefits of diary writing in cyberspace is that the existing memoirs in cyberspace which are less valuable outwardly can be used by the historians in order to express the oral history of Iranians, and it is interesting to know that such writings have been used in countries such as England for registration of history.
These memoirs can also be considered a significant source for social research and recognizing of the public opinion.
In conclusion, it is necessary to point out that with the emergence of social networks, many weblog writers and diary writers have abandoned their websites, turning toward Facebook and other social networks. Weblog writing and diary writing, however are still thriving, and unlike the current image, many diary writers in the weblogs have their own special visitors. For proving this, it is just enough to look for the word “diary writing” in one of the search engines and then you’ll find out that it is true.
Translated By: Mohammad Bagher Khoshnevisan
Source: tebyan
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