this is a sorta serious question that i've been mulling over for a while now. what is the point/purpose of internet diaries? i have been lead to believe that diaries are personal thing, that helps you sort out your thoughts and feelings, record memorable events and generally keep a record of your life to date. but if the diary is public does it not defeat the purpose? could any of you good people clarify this for me please?

I think it's because so many people have friends spread over a wide area (ie. the whole world) it's a way of keeping people up to date with what you're doing.

... but how many people actually do enough that is of intrest to others to keep such a thing going... we aren't all as brilliant as you M

ok, that sounds reasonable mata.......alot easyer than than e-mailing all your freinds.......for us lazy people anyway!

hmm but then what is the point of being online if not to communicate with friends?

hehe. this is agood point.

spank you very much .. see a good point and matta worship all at once... my momma would be so ... freaked out .. hahaha

to fid something interesting! like comedy, animation, free music/films etc. for some of us this grey box is oor only link to the outside world (sad, isnt it?)

I feel your pain... I was on self imposed restriction for a year. due to my agoraphobia, social phobia, and depression.

damn, thats a lot of phobia! any chance you could lend me some? ya see, it seems that people here (ireland) think that having a phobia or mental defect is a fassion statement, or a way to get out of work. its like, if you have a mental or social problem people wouldnt touch you with a barge pole (hence fassion statement. sad, isnt it?). but on the other hand if you have a drinking problem your seen as so kind of hero.

.... disfunctional much?

pardon? i dont understand...

... like a disfunctional family... the idolization of drunkards and the "popularity" of mental disfunctions...

yeah, very simillar. in this part of ireland anyway. it sucks. thank gawd my actual family havent taken to it, otherwise i could have ended up doing some really bad stuff, like drug dealing and joyriding (which are the major pass-times over here). now im quite thick, but at least i learned that i didnt have to follow the herd. this is mainly because my parents taught me to think for myself, and that real friends dont try to talk you into things.

and, cheerieo, byebye, gotta go. have a medical appointment.

i dunno...i have one internet journal thingy, and i like it (but then, lol none of my friends respond to it). if my friends did read it, however, then i dunno they might be able to provide an insight into what i'm feeling at a particular moment...

plus, for some weird reason it's just a lot easier for me to keep an online journal than one in an actual book. i write in my online one nearly every day (so far)....ones that i try to keep in a book i just forget about for some reason. and i like the idea of actually having a journal..just have never been able to keep up with it before trying the online thing, it always fizzled out..so it works out for me.

i tried one of those thingies but made me all paranoid that one of my friends WOULD see it so i didnt talk about anything for real - like if i was pissed off at someone or if i liked someone - hence it were useless and frivolous and mince so i stopped it

i write my own diary and although i still worry people are going to read it and think im wierd its a hell of a lot less public, i can see the appeal for some people though ...

I keep an online journal on my site. I do it to vent, and if people read it then fine. I've had a couple of people respond to ti and they were able to add some extra insite as Cand said.

It is also easier for me to write in it, but I've been slacking on it lately, because I don't have a word processing program on my own machine so I have to use my moms.

Maybe the online thing is easier too, cause at least you know you're writing and having people read your thoughts as opposed to writing and then having someone find your diary and read your thoughts.

I have to pee.

Yay for me and my excessively public life. I've had an open diary for years, although it's switched location a billion times. I don't really care if people know most things about me. Anything anyone asks me pretty much gets an honest answer anyway. If people don't want to know, they won't read it, and it they're overly curious, they can find out anything. The only things I keep from my diary are incidents involving other people when those people might find the incident to be too personal for internet exposure. Which happens sometimes, but oh well. It's okay. I don't fear the truth, but some people do, and I respect that.

I have a live journal that I post poems in, and those damned quizzes I always end up taking... interesting stuff...

http://www.livejournal.com/~superkathoid

erm, ok

Ah... those things started up by geeks to keep links to useful articles an online cartoons... look at em now, huh?

Some people prefer the privacy of a diary (which I think you fall into there, nord) but others use it as a form of catharsis, kinda ventin their spleen to an audience, as it were, an maybe gettin feedback on it.

I never got into writin diaries cos I always felt that the muddled mess I scribbled down went unnoticed an I never got answers to stuff. So I did an online one for a while, but nobody read that either...

No, I'm not givin the link!

People have blogs and update them daily/frequently in order to try to relate to others online, get popular, and hope that maybe someone can relate to them or give them advice about their life. Or, some people just like to tell all, and be very personal about certain things. And for the reader, it's quite entertaining.

I know mine's meant to make me popular. I don't think it's working.

I have one! I think they're a pretty good way to keep everybody up to date on your life, and if I ever want to keep something personal instead of all over the internet, then I just put the security level on private.

I got rid of mine. I wasn't using it anymore and well my mom is going to find out about the site soon so I don't want her to read about my drinking habits so poof its gone.

I have one, and it's alot easier to type it up in there and link people to it then it is to type about my day to every person that asks. I just write how I'm feeling and what happened that day so when I'm older I can look back and see how stupid I was. My handwriting sucks and is barely legible, so it's also easier to read font then it would be if I wrote things down.

mine is black.
well i know a lot of people who keep them who are my age, because
a-it is "the thing to do"
b- nobody who is 13 gives a damn what is going on in anybody else's who is 13's lives, at least they wont show it in public, but if online, that verfies that they are probably bored, and would like to get some dirt on eachother. or they might actually want real advice from their friends. i do read my friends journals. and i find them interesting. one girl told me to make one but uh...i dunno......

wow, i didnt think i'd get this much response! but thanks. this clarified alot.