Earlier today, I was reading my way around the Internet and I came across the following quote in a post on the fine public health blog, Effect Measure:

“Now I know from what Mrs. R. says and my own knowledge that personal diaries are commonly kept by young girls. They are extremely private, kept hidden and often destroyed post adolescence out of embarrassment or fear of discovery (boys don’t keep diaries; I’m not sure why).” (Full post here.)

The author was writing about blogging in general, and speculating about who blogs, and why. He made some interesting points, many drawn from the Pew Survey on bloggers, from this July.

But the thing that grabbed me was the assertion that young girls keep diaries but young boys don’t. I never thought about it before, but anecdotally in my experience, it’s true.

It got me wondering why. Why do girls but not boys keep diaries? What, if any, are the consequences? How, then, do boys document their experiences, or don’t they?

Are there any men out there who did keep diaries as boys? Ladies? Do you remember why you started, at the time?