A Survey Of Online Diarists: Part One
Dateline: 11/24/97 - Weekly feature from your Guide To Personal Web Pages
One of the difficulties in talking about online diaries is simple semantics. Can there be such a thing as a "public" diary? If these things aren't "diaries," then what are they? And why would anyone keep one?
It's hard to maintain a reasoned discourse about any aspect of personal publishing on the Web, much less about what many consider the exhibitionist extreme of online journals.
I've been following the online diary scene - if anything as divergent and definition-defying can be called such - for more than six months for The Mining Company. I consider myself a fan. Indeed, I've even argued that this category has evolved into one of the more mature subgenres of personal publishing.
Online diaries have been around as long as Web browsers (there was even a legendary FTP diary before that). Many point to Carolyn's Diary as the pioneering online journal and Ms. Burke remains this category's only "media star." In the last year or so, however, diaries have mushroomed. Perhaps there's a correlation between this sudden explosion and the ascendancy of personal narrative - specifically the memoir - in offline culture.
In any case, this is a form of online expression that is cresting with no end in sight. It's time to start asking questions about it.
Survey details
To gather more information about who keeps such journals and why I recently conducted a survey that was distributed on two email discussion lists comprised of diarists. I received 50 responses (to give you some context for that number, currently there are about 300 sites in the Open Pages Webring, by far the largest diary collection).I don't claim that this survey is scientific - rather it's a baby step toward trying to get more information about this community. I hope it at least helps us better define the terms of the debate about the purpose and value of such sites.
The survey attempts to address three main areas: How online diarists characterize what they are doing (the What), their reasons for doing it (the Why), and a demographic profile of the diarists themselves (the Who).
This first article will look at the Who. Following the results you'll find my analysis.
| Age | |
|---|---|
| Teen | 6% |
| 20-29 | 63% |
| 30-39 | 14% |
| 40-49 | 12% |
| 50 and over | 5% |
| Sex | |
|---|---|
| Male | 51% |
| Female | 49% |
| Nationality | |
|---|---|
| USA | 81% |
| Canada | 11% |
| Australia | 8% |
| Marital Status | |
|---|---|
| Single | 61% |
| Married | 33% |
| Divorced | 6% |
| Occupation | |
|---|---|
| My job involves writing/communications | 17% |
| My job does not involve | 83% |
Though the survey was self-selecting, the demographic results generally line up with my own experience of who is keeping online diaries.
Although women tend to be the keepers of the most remarked upon diaries, men have taken to this form just as readily. I believe that informal surveys within Open Pages have found a similar ratio (about even, with perhaps a tad more men). The Web is once again shown to be about equal-opportunity expression, you might say.
The age findings don't surprise me, given that Web demographics overall favor the 20-something age group. It's also possible that Gen Xers are overrepresented simply because they have more time to answer surveys. :-)
Still, it's interesting that aside from Justin Hall, many of the diarists cited as inspirations by the current wave of practitioners are over 30 (Carolyn, etc.). This form is a natural for the bildungsroman, but its pioneers tended to be mature people.
Since the survey was distributed on English-language mailing lists, it's no surprise that only English-speaking countries are represented here. These findings lean a bit too heavily to the United States as the source of most diarists, but only a bit.
The marital status findings are, of course, related to the age results noted above. A demographic skewed to 20-somethings will leave you with mostly single people. But there are many married folks keeping online diaries, likely a higher percentage than found here.
An aside: Some observers like to refer to online diaries as souped-up personal ads. However, I've rarely come across a diary whose purpose was to attract a lover.
The occupation question is attempting to address the issue of whether online diarists tend to be professional "communicators" or people for whom writing is a hobby apart from their livelihoods. I'm not surprise that few diarists find themselves in occupations where they can hone their writing. An oft-cited motivation for keeping an online diary, as we'll see in Part Two next week, is the chance to practice and perfect a "voice."
Go to Part Two of the survey results.