Online Diaries: Transformation of Medium and Meaning - 20th century: Privatized

It was only in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century when diaries became extremely private—often with a lock and key—and in seeming opposition to the public, personal blogs of today (Greer, 300). An article from a 1936 edition of the Ladies Home Journal offer hints at this transformation. In a didactic section of the magazine entitled “Dear Diary”, journalist Elizabeth Woodward instructs girls how they should define themselves through reading and writing and tells readers, “Even kid brothers know that diaries are extra-special private! So why not cut loose and say what you think in yours?” (Woodward, 194). Diaries became private texts in which people could record emotion and events that they wanted to hide from others, including authority figures.

Through looking at the use and purpose of diaries during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, it is clear that writing has almost come full circle, with the “newest form on the web similar to those kept by girls in the eighteenth century” (Greer, 300), in which they were much more public, editable documents.

Current Mood: cynical