Samuel Pepys

This is not a diarist's blog. That said, there are some things one can say about all forms of the blog, whether as diary, journal, newspaper, what have you.

Why do we write into the ether? I suppose the question could be posed to any publication, but it uniquely applies to blogs because so many of them are more personal than most publications. It's like sending a friendly letter to the entire world, but I suppose that's not unique; Letters to the Editor have been around for a long time, probably as long as there have been editors.

But why do so many people feel the urge to open themselves up like this? I think my personal life might be easier if no one actually knew what my views on various topics were, and I'm just worried about my views. Some people publish diaries which are more revealing than I'd care to be in a diary which I kept hidden under a mattress and burned at the end of every month. Why do they do it?

I think some of us are archivists; we want to catalogue our lives for posterity. The post's namesake was one of those. But that's a minor motivation, to my mind. Why do we want to archive our thoughts for others to read?

Fame? I'd guess that's a large part of it. Being read by people makes your point of view more important, your life more meaningful. It's a greedy motivation but not necessarily an evil one. There's nothing wrong with wanting attention, as long as the desire is expressed in a socially acceptable way. Well, okay, there is something wrong with it, but if everyone wants it, we can't really judge.

But there is something wonderful about confession, about revelation. And it's tempting to believe that, while we strip ourselves bare online, no one we know will read our revelations. That way we can get things off our chests without any risk. I'm sure everyone has felt the need to unburden themselves to someone, and it's really hard to do it face to face with someone. We may even secretly, even subconsciously, wish that our revelations would be made plain to the people we can't bring ourselves to tell personally.

The problem with believing this is that it just isn't true. It's far too easy to find people online, to the point that anonymity is no barrier. Eventually, someone we don't want to read our blogs winds up reading them, and whether or not we might have wished, deep down, for that to happen, when it does, it's likely that it won't be pleasant. Secrets weren't meant to be revealed impersonally, especially in a form where people will assume that they are the last to know.

Why don't I write diarist-style blog posts to fill up the days? For one, it's boring. But I'm also not interested in preserving my life for posterity. It's just not interesting enough. And while I have very little to hide, people aren't forgiving and take offense really easily, so you never know.