The private diary gone public

The question for me to answer this week is what makes people start a blog? I believe that mankind always has had a need to write as a way of self-therapy. To keep a diary is a way of doing that. Ten years ago though, diaries were equipped with locks and you needed a key to open them. The diary was a very private thing and reading a person’s diary was considered a serious crime, especially if the person was your older sister… What has changed? What makes people tell the entire world about their most private things? It is my belief that people seem to forget just how worldwide the web really is. Since there are a large number of blogs available on the internet, people tend to believe that they are completely anonymous – just because they are signing with a nickname. I don’t think that is the case. Someone will always recognize the story and secrets will no longer be secrets…

Another answer to the question above is the fact that the blog phenomenon itself has become extremely popular. It is cool to be a blogger and to some people that is reason enough to start. Evidently many people start blogs, where they write about almost everything. Even newspapers, like for example Aftonbladet, have their own paid bloggers. They try to cover all kinds of areas from sports and news to fashion and home styling to keep up with the blogging-trend. But not only journalists blog for money. Ordinary persons like you and me do it as well. And the fact that it is possible to earn one’s living as a blogger is evidence enough that blogs do fill a purpose.

But what purpose is that? Reading about other people’s misery makes us happy? I think a big reason for the explosion in blogging is the fact that we like that someone is listening. Lonely people with huge problems can share their diary on the internet, and maybe a person on the other side of the world responds. It is comforting to know you are not alone and thanks to blogs self-therapy through writing has expanded into group therapy. Maybe some people have ended up a little bit happier, and if that is the case – exposing your private diary is a good thing!