Anne Henochowicz: No privacy in world of online journals

One night a few years ago when I was in high school, I received an anxious call at home. A fellow editor at our student newspaper had come across a reporter's online journal - her Web log, or blog for short. Its entries contemplated suicide and detailed her past instances of cutting herself. I left messages with her school guidance counselor and the newspaper's executive director. To my surprise, the next day, both the director and reporter scolded my colleague and me for "turning her in." She was already undergoing therapy, I was told; and besides, her web log was "private."

To make a Web log private, the user does not list it in search engines or the Web log provider's directory. But it is still posted on the World Wide Web, not even password protected. Hidden, yes, but certainly not private. So then didn't she then want to be found out? Weren't her posts a cry for help, or at least for attention?

Milder versions of this story come up constantly. People post thoughts about their relationships, academics, and sexual orientations, praying that their parents don't come across it. But parents can and do use the Internet, as do teachers, exes and strangers. Private thoughts intended for oneself or a group of friends are simply not safe online. Many bloggers seem to ignore this possibility, and blogs seem to be redrawing the borders between private and public information.

In our age of reality TV, the tween-to-twenty-something set accepts personal exposure as entertainment. Unlike television, blogs allow users to be stars in their own right. A Web log is a memoir in the making, and the user is a digitally published author. Sharing one's life with the world is the whole point. At Penn and other colleges, students use Xanga, LiveJournal, and other Web log providers as a free and simple way of communicating with friends back home. Many posts are innocent, even boring: "Two more exams to go! Can't wait to see my homies!" They're mostly harmless.

Mostly. Any Internet surfer can browse those snapshots and shout-outs. The Web log world is the voyeur's dream: thousands of lives all detailed online. As college social life becomes increasingly Net-dependent, online voyeurism becomes an ever-more popular pastime. On thefacebook.com, for instance, users can find other users' e-mail addresses, Instant Messenger screen names, and yes, links to blogs. Users can browse through all of the listings at their own schools. That's thousands of strangers they can e-mail, message, or read about.

The potential for misuse poses one possible problem. For example, while a picture of a blogger in her Halloween costume may be relatively tame -- even if she's dressed as a "schoolgirl" -- anyone can download that picture, alter it, and distribute it. Notes to friends are less problematic, but users post so much more than that. There's no way to control who reads your blog, and if someone alters your words and republishes them, how can you stop them? Blogs aren't copyrighted.

Paradoxically though, what worries bloggers is not such deviant behavior, but rather being "found out" by teachers, parents and the like. Paradoxically, that is, because if you're publishing, don't you want to be found out? Either our idea of private information is radically changing, or bloggers actually want the "wrong people" to find them out.

Web logs provide more than entertainment. Bloggers want recognition and support as they experience life's dramas. Since bloggers tend to be young, they often have much to figure out: What should I major in? Does she really like me? Why are my parents such morons? Blogging, like any other form of writing, is cathartic. However, healing power lies not only in self-expression, but in communication. Web log readers can reply to entries, giving the blogger guidance and reassurance. For many people, addressing personal issues through writing is easier and more effective than pulling a friend away from her books on a Tuesday night.

Like one gigantic Dear Abby, part of the catharsis in blogging may be the assumed anonymity of the blogger and the reader. And even if while browsing the Web, your mother accidentally finds out you've come out of the closet, wasn't that quicker and easier than telling her in person?

But the Internet is not a replacement for face-to-face communication. In many ways it facilitates real-life interaction. Now that Mom knows, she's going to confront you about it. Depending on your mother, this next part might be very difficult -- or maybe not at all. But you've already gotten through the hardest part: breaking the news.

Perhaps the blogger in you had no intention, either conscious or subconscious, of coming out to your parents. But you certainly wanted someone to know, or else you'd have written in a diary and hidden it under your bed. You needed to tell your story to an audience. What you forgot is that you weren't just telling a selected audience. You were potentially telling the world.

What about the suicidal reporter? She thought her journal was secret. But even if she had encrypted her blog, any anonymous hacker could have stumbled upon her entries. Maybe she wanted advice beyond her therapy sessions. Maybe she just wanted to tell her story. Or maybe she just forgot that the Internet is anything but private.

Anne Henochowicz is a junior majoring in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

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