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How Do I Keep My Journal Private?

Because the journal is a physical object, it must occupy a physical location and is susceptible to being read by someone else. I have been fortunate to have people in my life who respect my privacy.  If you are not so lucky, here are some ideas about what you might do:

	Keep your journal under lock and key. If this is the only way to maintain your privacy, do what you have to do.
	Keep your journal with you. Sometimes, a person who normally wouldn't set out to read another person's journal becomes tempted when they find a journal.  I try to keep my own journal put away, trusting that out of sight is out of mind.
	Give everyone a journal. If your family is curious about your journal, let them have an experience of keeping their own journal.  Make it a family project to keep personal journals for a month.  This can help to raise everyone's awareness of the importance of privacy.

Online Journal Privacy

A twist on the privacy issue is online journals.  Many people today are keeping their journal on their website where entries are available for the whole world to see.   Since the summer of 1998, I have been keeping my journal online.  And it has changed the way I look at journal privacy.

I am struggling with the privacy issue now knowing that visitors to this website can read about the issues and situations that have been tearing me apart, or about the things that have given me the greatest joy.  I have not resolved this conflict.  I suspect that I will either adjust to this lack of privacy, or, I will stop my online journal.  Only time will show me which option fits my life best.

Last updated on: Saturday, December 15, 2007 4:48 PM