Blogs have been around for what…10 years now? Blogs actually started way before the Internet ever existed and if you used to write or still do write in a diary, you’re technically blogging. If you’re unfamiliar with what a diary is, it’s basically a small little book for your to jot down your daily life encounters. You be writing in the diary about how you met a girl or boy at school or how you failed a class. These daily notes are what reminds you of what happened during that time and is usually kept for years. As you reach your adulthood, you most likely have forgotten about it because writing in diaries were a thing in the past. Once you find your childhood diary, it’s the thing that brings back a lot of memories and flashbacks, but I can now say that writing in a diary just isn’t a childhood thing anymore.
It’s the 21st century now and written diaries are old news because with Internet, there are blogs. A blog is basically a web log or in other words, a place for you to rant and keep track of your memories. When blogs came out, a lot of people took advantage of the Internet to give a new feel to diary writing.
There are still a lot of online blog diaries that are being used by people to keep track of things, but the only problem is nothing is private anymore. A diary used to be a well kept notebook or notepad that was secretly hidden. There aren’t a lot of diary writers that actually tell their friends that they utilize a diary to keep track of things because the majority of the time, the notes in the diary are very personal.
I remember seeing some of my friends (mostly girls) carrying around diaries at times, but these little notebooks actually have locks or combination codes on them. Diaries were really meant to keep personal information that was, and still is for some, a book of secrecy. When a person wrote in their diary, it was practically a time to let out all rants and feelings with no rules attached. My fellow classmates would pretty much kill to read a lady classmate’s diary.
Since these days, diaries are considered blogs, and blogs are accessed through the Internet, we see a bigger majority of people using them. It used to be females that keep diaries, but guys do too. The only problem now is that a blog is not a secret place to be. You can put password locks and never give the homepage to anyone, but the Internet is now a place crawling with pedophiles, hackers, and random browsers.
The definition of diary is now a place for everyone from your friends and family to Google searchers and spiders stealing your content 
Because of this, blogging started to turn into a activity rather than a personal moment. Guys and girls blog now for everyone to read, but keep in mind that a blog was suppose to be meant as a diary.
These days, bloggers don’t care much about keeping things private anymore because anything kept private just hints hackers to come in to take a look. Besides, I don’t see much personal blogs anymore because everything in the blogosphere is now full of advertisements and some sort of money making strategy. Haven’t any of you wondered what happened to the good old days when you visit a blog and it’s just daily posts about that person’s personal life?
Come to think of it, I think I had a few personal web pages, which weren’t considered a “blog” back then since the term wasn’t used much back 5-10 years. I’m sure you guys recall those content management websites like Xanga. Xanga used to be huge until everything start revolving around money and having a diary just didn’t seem like the latest thing anymore.
There’s no harm in trying to make money, but what really happened to keeping personal stuff to ourselves? Everyone is reading anyone’s blog now and anyone would know what’s happening in your life.
Do you still post your personal rants on your blog or do you now treat your blog as a money making ATM machine?
I certainly don’t post personal stuff, rather I post stuff I think others would enjoy. I think you will find that the online person is very different to their real life alter ego.
You beat me to it,i was planning to write something about blogging for the fun of it just as in the good old days when we keep diaries.I write about personal stuff most times in order to inspire others from the stories.
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hhhhmmmmmmmm…yup before..but my mind was change and it is now some informative blog..:-)
I wrote something similar to this when I crossed over from a personal blogger to a semi-problogger sometime in the last quarter of 2007.
Now that I have multiple blogs (with multiple blogging personalities), I can write whatever I want and then chose from among my blogs which is appropriate for that particular post.
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I used to have a personal blog ……but the fun that goes into entering it in a book is somewhat different. So I’d love my blog to be …an ATM Machine!
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Hi - Good post.
You might want to put the Blogging Zoom logo thingy on your blog too (a Word Press plugin)
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I guess I’ve evolved into a personal diary of daily activities. I average about 7 new hits a day and maybe 6 or 7 returning. So I’ll never be Huge or even make any money. But right now thats ok.
My last blog post is..We’re Justa so proud of the Boy!
Sometimes I put in some personal stuffs in my blog but I have to admit that those personal stuffs that go into my blogs are considered “safe” stuffs… The real personal ones do not really go out to any blogs but remain locked, in my head… LOL!
My last blog post is..MacBook Airs + $1,000 Giveaway
Another reason people are less likely to write personal stuff is for saftey/security reasons - there are a lot of crazy people out there or sometimes your online life vs. your professional life don’t always go together well and you could potentially jeopardize that…though really i think you’re right and for most, it’s just all about the money
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There are a number or personal blogs out there and some people air out all of their dirty laundry which is a bit scary. Its like they are on a mission to get back at someone especially when they start naming names. Its their choice to do it. Everyone will have their own way of blogging and as was mentioned in a previous comment, some people are different in the virtual world to what they are in the real world whereas others stay the same. Different strokes for different folk.
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When I first started blogging I was very careful not to let any personal details out, I did not want people to know about me…. but as it became a noral thing for me to do, and I started making online contacts my personal life leaked in a little more and most of my posts contain something a little personal.
I don’t think I will ever use blogging as a diary, I have never been much good at keeping them!
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I don’t blog for money, but I blog and share the things I like.
I run several blogs, but one of them is my own personal site called Redhead Rants. It’s my own little spot to vent, rave, jump up and down, and brag about my kids. I don’t post a lot of deeply personal things, but I do share my POV on life. It’s a great way for me to get stuff off my chest, so I can be more professional on my other sites.
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This is really a good post. I too had a personal blog back then. But I decided it was just too personal to publish online. What happened was something like when you left your filofax/organizer/diary for just a few seconds and your guy classmates would try to take a glimpse while your gone. Then they would tease you when you get back… that’s what I felt after a few entries in my once personal blog. Some of my friends would actually tease me about the stuff I wrote. Besides, I don’t want some stalker knowing where I was or what I have been doing. Well atleast keep away from writing too much information on your daily life is what I’ve learned.
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My blog is a mixture of personal and stuff around me that I like to write…a blog can be anything you want it to be…u are the BOSS..
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Haha.. I’m slightly different I guess. I started blogging because I wanted my blog to be an ATM machine, and I even created multiple blogs and bought my own domain. And suddenly things got rather stressful. And now, I just blog for pleasure (as in a personal blog), teasing friends in my blog and enjoying my small company of online friends. Everything is less complicated now I guess. =)
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This is one of the best idea where in you can express your feelings..
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No, today you hardly see any blogs that are like diarys. They all are just about tech and money making. but I am sure there are still a couple. since the net is such a free place today everyone is scared to be there natural self and will not post things that they are thinking about
There is a fine line …. i think the ATM type of blog can be limited to those within the MMOL niche, many others just have some monetization to cover costs.
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That’s the truly great thing about blogging. You can have multiple online personalities and write about whatever you want. My current blog is focused on web design and internet marketing, but I think my next blogging adventure will be dedicated to fun, crazy stuff.
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When I was 14, my best friend and I used to have a secret diary where we wrote everything we did and thought. Now, with Internet and the new technologies, I have two blogs: the first one for money making and talking about my hobbies; the second one is more personal: I write here what I usually do and there are my personal photos, with the description of all my hobbies. Every people can see and comment them, but I don’t wrote everything on them. I think there could be the risk of Internet addiction and blogging everything can lead you to lose your private life. Real life and real friends are too much important, so I think there can be a right balancing between blogging and living real life, having (why not?) a paper diary, if you want.
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I don’t blog much about myself,people might not interested about my personal life.I try to blog about issues that many people might wanna to know or any update that people interested in.
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Hehe, you can have a local installation of WordPress on your computer and keep a “private diary” there.
MMO blogs are dominating the internet now, but I still read a number of personal blogs, you will find them rather easily if you look hard enough, depends on what type of niche you are concentrating in, I’m sort of interested in everything guy…
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I have witnessed some blogs about their personal experiences and the like. They even separate their personal blogs from blogs about their hobbies etc. However, my blog is a mixture of everything. Hahaha I find it easier to manage only one blog with everything from my personal life to my hobbies etc.
I am not posting personal stuff on my blogs.. actually.. I still have my diaries with me.. hehe.. I started writing diary when I was in grade school.. and I have lots of diaries stock in my cabinet..
my blog is all about movies and celebrities..before it is for promoting the company site.. sad to say, I did not update the two blogs for almost two months.. I’ll update it maybe next week.. and planning to create another blog.. and this time using WORDPRESS..
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If I wanted to write personal stuff, I would either do it on a old-fashioned book or on a word document; no way I would put my life out there for anyone to see!
One thing I don’t like about living nowadays is that people tend to spread their lives on TV and online (Big brother and all reality shows are just an attempt to show life as it it, putting it out there on camera or online for the public means that people doing it cannot be entirely truthful). You can be guaranteed that people trying to make money from publicizing their lives don’t live it the same way as if noone saw it.
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@ grace and internet junkie
I think you guys have a point. Well it is hard to be anonymous in the internet right? anyway I only put some info about my personal life on my blog but not literally everything. Only those “lighter” stuffs that I know won’t be taken against me by anyone in the future. hehehe.
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My blog, I think is an indescribable blog with no specific purpose.
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In life,there are always some things that are needed to hide as a secret.At these matters,diaries come in hand!!.
I think very few people make online diaries because there are privacy concerns everywhere.
And I do maintain a personal diary to keep track of life.It gives you a nice feeling to see what happened in the past on a particular day!.And I have a blog too….to make me some money!!.
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I have come across some blogs that are personal diaries and some are interesting but then some are boring. I think alot of people who put out personal diary blogs at time exagerate to make the stories interesting and this is fine with me I rather have exageration then bordom.
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