A diary or journal is a book for writing discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Such logs play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including governmental, business ledgers, and military records. In more personal diaries, the writer may detail crushes or complaints.

Diaries run the spectrum from business notations, to listings of weather and daily personal events, through to inner exploration of the human psyche, a place to express one's deepest self, or record one's thoughts and ideas.

Some use the words "diary" and "journal" interchangeably while others apply strict differences to journals, diaries and the practice of journaling (dated vs. undated, inner focused vs. outer focused, sporadic entries vs. regular entries, etc.). While traditionalist preferred the use of the term diary, the current preference (based on book and article titles) is to use the word "journal." The phrase "journaling" is often used to describe such hobby writing, similar to the term "scrapbooking."

Some diarists think of their diaries as a special friend, even going so far as to name them. For example, Anne Frank called her diary "Kitty". There is a strong psychological effect of having an audience for one's self-expression, a personal space, or a "listener," even if this is the book one writes in, only read by oneself. Friedrich Kellner, a justice inspector in the Third Reich, thought of his diary as a weapon for any future fight against tyrants and terrorism, and he fittingly named it "Mein Widerstand" - "My Opposition."

Many thousands of diaries have been published since book publishing began.

List of books on diaries and journals

* A Life of One's Own by Joana Field (Marion Milner), 1934.

* At a Journal Workshop by Ira Progoff, 1975.

* The New Diary: How to use a journal for self-guidance and expanded creativity by Tristine Rainer, 1978.

* Ariadne's Thread: A collection of contemporary women's journals, edited by Lyn Lifshin, 1982.

* A Book of One's Own: People and their diaries by Thomas Mallon, 1984.

* The Journal Book, edited by Toby Fulwiler, 1987. (Collection of essays on using journals in K12 classrooms.)

* The Creative Journal: The art of finding yourself by Lucia Capacchione, 1989.

* Journal to the Self: twenty-two paths to personal growth by Kathleen Adams, 1990.

* How to Make a Journal of Your Life by Dan Price, 1999.

As Internet access became commonly available, people adopted it as yet another medium with which to chronicle their lives, with the added dimension of having an audience (negating, to some, the very definition of diary). The first online diary is thought to be Claudio Pinhanez's "Open Diary", which was published at the MIT Media Lab website from 14 November 1994 until 1996.Other early online diarists include Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal online diary-writing in 1994, Carolyn Burke who started publishing "Carolyn's Diary" on 3 January 1995, and Bryon Sutherland, who announced his diary The Semi-Existence of Bryon in a USENET newsgroup on On 19 April 1995.

The number of people publishing web journals grew quickly; but, for some time, the practice was limited to people who had both Internet access and a familiarity with HTML. Several diverse communities of web diarists eventually developed.

Web-based services soon appeared to streamline and automate online publishing. But the great explosion in personal storytelling came with the emergence of weblogs, also known as blogs. While the format was first focused on external links and topical commentary, widespread weblog tools were quickly used to create web journals—though as of short, spontaneous entries rather than crafted essays. The weblog community was more naturally comfortable with networking and linking, creating a thriving online community. As had been the case in the web-diarist community, there were cliques and protests over a supposed A-list of authors. Like online journals, "personal weblogs" are frequently maligned in the broader weblog community as a form of "navel gazing".

Some weblog services are small and offer simply a way to publish one's writing, while others have become true communities offering opportunities for feedback and communication with fellow diarists.

Source : www.wikipedia.org