Personal diary for the world

More and more young adults are posting their most intimate thoughts online.

Emily Butler used to keep a pen-and-paper diary. But after her mother found it, the teenager started pouring out her feelings online.

Butler, 16, a sophomore at Yorktown High School who started a blog on the site Xanga a couple of years ago, said: "Once I discovered posting online, it definitely became, ‘Why would I write it in a book?'"

Typing to express

Online diaries have become a well-known phenomenon, with teenagers and young adults attracted to the genre in huge numbers. These diarists make their writing accessible to friends, acquaintances and to hundreds of millions of world wide web users. Many include their full names and school names.

Parents, teachers and police constantly urge young people not to reveal too much about themselves online. They warn that personal disclosures might be read by college admissions officers and potential employers, not to mention stalkers and paedophiles.

But a review of major blogging and social-networking websites shows that online diaries remain popular for teenagers and interviews with experts help explain the psychology behind going public with what used to be private thoughts.

A high-schooler recounts the bliss of falling in love for the first time and then, the anguish of breaking up. A girl sent to a group home laments that old friends seem distant.

It is hard to know how many of these entries represent truth as the writers see it, fantasy, or something in between. Regardless, diarists say the journals connect them to a broader community, help them navigate the complexities of friendship and romance and allow them to vent their feelings.

Teenagers also use online diaries to spread information quickly. "You can get to a lot of people all at once," said Colton O'Connor, 19, a graduate of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. "A phone call only gets to one person at a time."

Companies that operate major blogging and networking sites - such as Xanga, LiveJournal and MySpace - say the numbers of teenagers and young adults who use them are in the millions.

Rochelle Gurstein, author of The Repeal of Reticence, a book about the erosion of privacy in the United States, said the blogs seem to reflect an "unprecedented change" in teenagers' sense of modesty and vulnerability.

O'Connor's elder brother noted that blogs let writers interact while avoiding the emotional risks of one-on-one conversation.

Following instincts

"This generation is worse at talking face-to-face," said Jeremy O'Connor, 23, a recent graduate who has kept a LiveJournal diary for five years. "Having someone read your secret feels better."

The O'Connors' mother, Karen, said she was appalled when her four children started keeping online journals. "I couldn't imagine why you would put your feelings on something that went out there."

Gerald Goodman, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California in Los Angeles, said young bloggers are following a deep human impulse. "This is genetic, this need to be known by another human," he said. But Goodman said he worries there is a downside for those who rely too much on such communication.

"It's not real - it is like phone sex," he said. "As they grow up, how will they manage their vulnerability and their disclosure and their risk-taking in human relations? Is this going to do something that we can't predict yet about the way they're willing to take risks to get close?"

Butler acknowledged that relating online provides a social buffer. But that is part of the appeal. Breaking up online is also OK, she said. Then she reconsidered: "Breaking up online is so sixth grade. Like, by eighth grade you should at least call them."