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Palo Alto Online

Dear diary

by Rachel Metz

W When Eric Felleman wants to let his friends know what he's up to, he writes in his journal.

But instead of updating a traditional paper diary, Felleman posts to his online journal where anybody familiar with his URL can get an eyeful of Felleman's current exploits.

"I think it's really just started becoming really popular. Every other week I find another one of my friends has signed up," Felleman, an incoming Palo Alto High School senior, said.

Indeed, the Web sites have grown in popularity, providing local teens with an outlet to rant, post announcements and keep in touch with friends both near and far. They have also become a vehicle for expressing opinions and ideas that teens would normally feel insecure saying publicly.

Popular sites for online journaling include Livejournal.com, Blogger.com and Diaryland.com. All three sites offer free journals that users can update as often as they want. Some bloggers -- an abbreviation of the term "Web log" -- host their journals on their own Web sites, instead of using a journal service.

On some online journal sites like LiveJournal, users can decide what kind of layout and color scheme they want their journal to have, from a mundane black-and-white to a flurry of pinks, reds and greens. Many sites also let viewers post comments on journals, often sparking in-depth conversations or deeper understanding of a writer's initial thoughts.

According to site statistics at www.LiveJournal.com, the site hosts approximately 1.17 million journals, 547,356 of which are actively used. On LiveJournal, most bloggers tend to be between the ages of 15 and 23.

Felleman started his journal in August 2000 and tends to update it about once a week. He thinks he's writing more now than he did before he began his journal. Felleman said he uses his online journal to let his friends know what he's been up to or inform them of something funny he found on the Internet.

"It's kind of a different side of yourself. You can show what you want to show and you can portray yourself through writing instead of through speaking. I think people say things they wouldn't be as comfortable saying out loud," Felleman said.

Felleman also uses online journals to keep in touch with friends that are far away -- he can see what's going on in their lives by clicking over to their journals.

Kelly Thaker, a recent Paly graduate, said online journals are a great place to rant about all sorts of problems and stressful situations. Most teenagers' online journals reveal a panoply of entries, ranging from a mundane rundown of a writer's school day to discussions of philosophy, sexuality and excitement about heading off to college.

Thaker has maintained her journal for more than a year and said the frequency of her updates depends on what's going on in her life.

"I guess it's kind of therapeutic because everybody seems to love using it to let out angst. Among my friends it's kind of accepted that that's what it's used for so we don't go around commenting on each other's fights that often," Thaker said. "It's kind of like talk therapy. I was seeing a therapist and the things that I didn't feel comfortable talking about to him I would put on my journal."

Daniel Moyer, an incoming Gunn High School senior, treats his online journal as a virtual bulletin board. A capture the flag enthusiast, Moyer lets his friends know about upcoming games via his LiveJournal.

He likes the friends' list option on LiveJournal, where users can compile a continuously-updated list of their friends' journals. This way, Moyer said, you can see what people are really talking about.

"It's just a way to get your thoughts out there," Moyer said.

Moyer tends to update his journal every few weeks, though he noted some people update almost every day. Moyer agreed with online journaling's therapeutic aspects, saying it can help when a writer's friends read what the writer is going through. His journal includes links to Web sites he likes, bits of TV show dialogues and bored musings.

He's also been surprised by friends' written expressions.

"I know definitely I'll read something personal somebody else wrote and I'll have no idea they thought that," Moyer said.

Online journal writers said they don't worry too much about the personal information they put in their journals and have not really been bothered by unwanted readers, though Thaker said users would not want to put up extremely private details about their lives. This information could range from a writer's e-mail address and instant messaging name to his or her home phone number, address or personal pictures.

Usually, the amount of information an online journalist reveals is up to him or her. On Felleman's journal, viewers can see personal stats including his height, weight, hair color, first name and birthday. There's also a list of links to his friends' journals, including Thaker's. The easily-identifiable personal information on Thaker's journal is her instant messaging screen name.

"There's kind of this whole opportunity for online stalking and weird stuff like that and social faux paux, so there's kind of like social rules, like the dork's code of politeness or something. I guess that kind of keeps it cliquey," Thaker said.

This "code," Thaker said, is like an extension of rules governing conversations and phone calls. But in text, she said, it's important to be careful of how you word comments you may make on another person's journal to ensure the comments are not taken the wrong way. She also cautioned about putting up too much personal contact information.

"I guess it's just something you have to take the perspective of a stranger reading your journal and if you're wondering if something will sound OK to put up in your journal, you have to keep in mind that random people can read it," she said.

Rachel Metz can be e-mailed at rmetz@paweekly.com