With Blogs, Who Needs The Diary?

In the good old days, the diary was a platform to pen one’s thoughts over events affecting the owner. It was more of personal storytelling.

As internet access became commonly available, more people adopted it as another medium in which to chronicle their lives with the added dimension of an audience.

Today, the humble diary is fast losing its usefulness with the emergence of online diaries, or almost exclusively called blogs, though some differentiate by calling them personal blogs.

The running updates of online diarists combined with links inspired the term 'web log' which was eventually contracted to form the word blog.

In online diaries, people write their day-to-day experiences, social commentary, complaints, poems, prose, illicit thoughts and any content that might be found in a traditional paper diary or journal. They often allow readers to contribute through comments.

With the start of the new year, communication executives are on their rounds to media houses to distribute their “goodies” – diaries and calendars as a token of appreciation for the media support to their companies during the year that just ended.

Some have distributed them towards the end of last year – either at press nights or hand delivered to the respective media. Some choose to give the goodies early this month by dropping by at the respective media’s offices.

A courtesy call around end December and first week of January is not such a good idea as some of the key editors and reporters are on leave. Many are expected to be back in the second week. Hopefully, they come back in top form and not start work with a MC!

So back to the diary, companies used to hand out (large size) management diaries to editors. The trend has changed to regular and more compact sizes, which are not atypical diary. It is more of a notebook with ample space for writing.

I guess, companies have probably conducted a consumer survey on the use of diaries among their clients or journalists, for that matter. To ensure these diaries reach the right person, many companies made it a point to print the recipient’s name on the diary. Bank Rakyat and Ambank are two examples, with the latter producing similar red coloured notebook each year.

But how many do you need?

Well, let’s see. I place the Bank Rakyat management diary on my table to keep track of my appointments, and use the Ambank notebook for my regular meetings. One or two are kept for separate meetings, while the rest are distributed to my staff and close friends.

All my diaries are for official use. Nothing personal. I have not written any affairs of the heart inside the diary, lest someone may read all my secrets! I treat this blog ‘Getaran Jiwa’ my personal diary but some things are not meant to be shared with everyone.

Let your secrets remain with you.