Dear Diary .

Some girls keep their diaries under lock and key, hoping nobody ever reads the words on the page.

But not Jessie Liebenguth. She’s tossed her thoughts onto the Web. In an entry titled “inventory of life,” Liebenguth writes:

“Zen moment: I am a heinous bitch. Goal: change that.

“Ending Zen moment: If I write all this down, will anyone care? Will anyone feel the slight despair and realize my need to include it all in a purely masturbatory journal?”

It’s not all that racy, though. Elsewhere, Liebenguth lists the items tossed on her dorm room floor and wishes a friend a happy birthday.

Liebenguth, sophomore in horticulture, is just one of many online journal users. Her favorite is live journal.com, but there are a slew of others, including blogger.com and diary land.com. She says her journal is similar to a personal message board.

“I update my journal every week or so,” Liebenguth says of her online word space. “It’s a good way to keep in touch with people.”

The audience for the journal includes long-lost high school classmates, whom Liebenguth said the site allows her to keep in touch with. And she’s not the only one of her friends who uses the site as a communication tool.

“Quite a few of my friends use online journals in various forms and from various Web sites,” Liebenguth says. “I really enjoy using blogs. They’re so much quicker and easier to read than e-mails.”

“I use my online journal about 75 percent to keep in touch and 25 percent to just vent my emotions.”

Collections of Personality

Web logs, commonly known as blogs, allow students to show the world their personality and interests, says Michael Mallen, graduate student in psychology. For example, Liebenguth has inserted pictures on her site to spice up the journal’s personality. Today, there’s a photo of the Beatles and a “You are a dominatrix” pic.

“If you walk into a student’s room and look around the walls, you can usually get a feel for the type of person they are, or at least what some of their interests may be,” Mallen says. “The same can hold for a person’s personal Web page.”

Poetry, daily logs, reflection and thoughts are all elements of online journals, says Helen Raica-Klotz, temporary instructor of English.

“Like most journals, these online collections contain anything and everything,” she says.

Making the Private Public

Moving journal writing from the internal to external world intrigues Raica-Klotz, who teaches a journal writing course.

“This is a way of publishing your writing and creating an audience for yourself,” she says. “Online journaling turns the concept of journal writing on its head.

“It removes the element of privacy and allows for public criticism, which is fascinating to me.”

College students can especially benefit from an online journal because their lives are opening up and becoming fuller, Raica-Klotz says. The online journals can provide a reference to their authors, who may not remember all the details of daily life when looking back months or years later.

Most online journal sites provide a comments or feedback section where readers can leave personal messages to the author.

“Writers may use the device to practice and get feedback from other folks,” Mallen says.

“The technology is just a tool, and people will use those tools for various creative endeavors.”

However, putting personal thoughts online should be treated cautiously, Raica-Klotz says.

“There is an inherent risk in putting yourself online,” she says. “It increases vulnerability.”

Even so, Raica-Klotz says online journaling “captures the wonderful details of life.”

Students may choose to keep a blog for a variety of reasons, Mallen says.

“Some people enjoy venting to the void that is the Internet,” he says.

“Maybe someone will read your words and be affected, maybe not . but it is a release, just like a privately handwritten journal.”