For many individuals, journals are personal and private, and a mini-crisis would ensue if someone were to read these secret thoughts, however, thousands of people have broken with tradition and posted their journals online to be read at anyone's leisure.
Online journals, also known as blogs, have put the stamp of the Internet age on journal writing - they are public as well as personal.
Web sites like LiveJournal.com, Diaryland.com and Xanga.com offer mediums for individuals who are so inclined to post thoughts, opinions and responses to experiences for all to read.
Daniel Grissom, a sophomore sociology major, said he has been using online journal services for six months.
"I use it every other day because I have friends back home that I can't often speak to," said Grissom. "It gives me the opportunity to keep in touch and know what is going on in their lives."
Aside from a mode of staying connected with friends, Grissom said he believes keeping the online journal has other benefits.
"It is very therapeutic, especially when I am angry," he said. "I will go home and start writing, and thoughts just come out of your fingers, like ways I didn't know that I think about the issue and ways to deal with the issue."
According to statistics from LiveJournal.com, Grissom is not alone his desire to share his feelings with the Internet community. There are 1,942,113 bloggers using LiveJournal worldwide. A large percentage of those using the service live in the United States and a good portion of the blogging population are college age individuals with 380,000 users between the ages of 18 and 21.
Alexander Halavais, an assistant professor in the School of Informatics who has studied the blog phenomenon for five years, adds his own statistic, saying that there is one blog formed every 11 seconds.
Sherilyn Thomas, director of the Psychological Service Center and a clinical assistant professor there said online journaling has both advantages and disadvantages on a student's emotional problems.
"Studies done by the nursing students found that writing journals can decrease stress," said Thomas. "Other research found that when people focus on their feelings and thoughts, they have a greater awareness of the benefit of the event. People who only focus on emotion reported to have the worst illness symptoms in the studies."
Aside from emotional detriments, experts warned of other dangers lurking in the blog craze.
"Students should be careful with their identity online," said Halavais.
Meghan Griffen, a sophomore geology major and a current LiveJournal.com user who has been a blogger for two and half years, said for her, blogging is entertaining as well as therapeutic.
"It is fun to read what other people are thinking at 2 a.m., and sometimes 2 a.m. is when something hits you that you just have to write down. Online journals are a good way to do that," said Griffen, "if I am really upset, I can get it out in writing and I feel better about it."
Though some students think blogging is a good way to keep in touch with friends and manage emotions, others differ in their opinion on the usefulness of these online journals.
"I never use it, it takes too much time," Huizhong Li, a senior communication major, said of blogging.
Even as people like Li avoid weblogs, enough people consider it a form of entertainment for it have attracted the attention of major marketing companies like America Online and Microsoft, who recently introduced their new blogging services.
Halavais said he expects a blogging explosion to take place in the next six months and that it has become and will become an even bigger part of academia.
"More people will use blogging in the future within the classroom," he said. "UB's School of Informatics students can use blogs under the School of Informatics (program) started last summer."
