Some of you are very familiar with online diaries and may even have one of your own. Others of you are just discovering
this unique form of expression. I have had some people write to me and ask why people write an online diaries and if I thought, to be true diaries, they would have to be private. I would have to say that if people want to write online diaries it's their choice and they have the right to do so. It's not really that much different, privacy wise, as those people who create personal Web sites and tell all about themselves and their families and even post pictures and sometimes tell where they live.
About Online Diaries
Online diaries have been around since 1995 and a lot of the people who write them have become a very close knit group. As a matter of fact there are a couple of communities for online diaries. Not only do they have a list of many different online diaries but they also offer advise on how people can create online diaries effectively.Diaries have been around probably as long as people could write and
until now they have been a very private thing. So why would someone want to post their private thoughts on the Internet. Let me just give you some
thoughts from what I have read on this subject. Sometimes an online diary
is kept to communicate with far away friends and family as a way of letting
them know what is going on in your life. Some people feel that this
is an art of expression. Some people are just self-centered and think everyone
wants to know all about them (although I believe this to be a small group).
Some people are looking for pity because their lives are not what they want them
to be. Some people have a real life scenario that they want to share to help others
such as those with cancer or AIDS. Then their are the young people wanting
to share their "new" experiences that are not new to a lot of us but new
to them all the same.
Awaken: Her Thoughts
I want to share with you what one person wrote about why she feels some journals are written online. Her name is Julie Petersen and her site is called Awaken. The following is a quote from her essay:"If each of us were to catalog our own human experience and make it available on the web, we could lend to each other an omnipotence unattainable prior to the existence of the Net. We could take events in our own lives, which have mystified us since their occurrence, and search the web for similar encounters. We could compare and contrast other's experiences and draw deeper meaning into our own experience. We might too, find the one piece of information that will transform an experience we had nearly forgotten into a life changing moment which has been waiting years to unfold. Using the Web, we could study humanity in a way unavailable to us prior to the existence of the Net. We could take a cross section of the human experience, revealing different layers of expression provided by other examinations of a particular experience. We could collect individual accounts of such experiences and benefit from the various levels of analysis drawn from religion, mythology or archetype, as well as wholly uneducated or raw versions of the experience. And we could track the experience across boundaries of age, gender, era, and culture. The Web may provide us with a way to transcend our current and limited spheres of knowledge to grasp a further and deeper understanding of what it means to be human and to be alive."
I think she has captured the spirit of the online diarist in this essay. If you get the chance you should read it from beginning to end. It is very moving and I enjoyed it very much. It helped me to realize why, deep down, some of these people do this.
Getting Started
Join an online diary club They have a lot of things a diary lover would want including links to webrings, diaries, and useful information.If you'd rather create your own online diary Web site than join an online diary club, that's great too. Build your site, talk about your life, add pictures and make sure to mention things you know people want to hear about.
Whether your a novice, expert or just an onlooker of online diaries, I think most would agree that it's a pretty intriguing topic.
