Diary

From ArticleWorld

A Diary is a deeply personal account of a person’s thoughts, feelings and experiences noted down on a daily basis. Some people use the term journal interchangeably with diary but journals may or may not be private (usually not), and are mostly used to keep monetary and business records. A diary may also be used to note dates of future appointments and other activities; in fact, it may be used as a calendar of future events much like a secretary who keeps notes of dates.

Diaries are also thought of as a close or best friend by many diarists who also name their diaries giving them personality and character. This probably has psychological connotations as people are able to express their deepest desires, feeling and emotions without any inhibitions and a fear of rejection. This acts as a catharsis and helps take pressure off the diarist’s mind and heart.

Through the ages

Diary perhaps has its root in the Latin word “dies” meaning day or diaria meaning days. One of the earliest records of a diary is of a Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang, to India who made an account of his travels to the Country during its most prosperous period. His travelogue between the years of 630 A.D. and 645 A.D. is considered an authoritative source for this period. Then there were the pillow books of Japanese court ladies in which stray thoughts and feeling were penned as they lay at hand on the pillow of the writer. In the Western world, diary writing was confined to the higher classes mainly during and before the 19th century.

Modern diaries

From the FiloFax of the 1990s the world has progressed to online diaries, the first of which appeared on the screen in 1995. For a while the phenomenon was reined in due to limited internet access but with easy access of internet blogs have become the word of the day. Now a persons innermost thoughts, desires, feelings are on the net for the world to explore.