Who hasn't jotted a few personal notes in a diary, carefully secured the lock, and tucked the treasured journal away where no other eyes could view its secrets?

While there may still be a some journals stashed, more and more people are choosing the newest technology wave to share not only their secrets, but virtually anything and everything under the sun, from recipes to political rants.

Short for Web log, a blog is "basically an on-line diary," according to Tammy Boice, a professor who teaches computer classes at Butler County Community College.

The popularity of blogging has exploded in the past few years and has opened up the world of Internet publishing to virtually anyone with access to a computer. Blog topics can run from scholarly reviews to mundane journals to seedy exposés.

Because blogging is an easy and free way for anyone with a computer to express themselves, it's seen an upsurge in recent years. Unlike Web sites, which are static, are sometimes complicated to construct and increasingly fee-based, blogs are easier to create, easier to use and are constantly changing.

Creating a blog takes only a few minutes, and a new message takes just a few clicks.

The most basic blog format is a title, followed by a series of dated message entries. Newest messages appear at the top. There is usually a space for the blog owner, or blogger, to add links to favorite Web sites. Blogs may also include photos, and can be personalized with a seemingly endless variety of designs.

People who read the blog can usually leave their own comments, although bloggers who are concerned about privacy can protect their blog site by securing it with a password.

Boice, a blogger herself, said she writes her hobby of training and showing her Dalmations in agility trials. She notes there are blogs about virtually every topic.

"It's the diversity that makes the world go around," she said.

The nature of electronic communications, in which anyone can publish virtually anything they want, has given blogging a sometimes questionable reputation. But the comfort of today's young people with technology as a communication medium has also opened up blogging as a new tool for the classroom.

As a class project, technology teacher Heath Lauster of Knoch High School asked his students to keep a blog as part of their video production class. Students use their individual blogs to discuss classwork and track progress on their projects. Lauster reads the blogs and gives the students feedback through comments on the blog.

The introduction of blogging into the classroom was a hit with junior Melissa Balsiger of Saxonburg.

"I've never done blogging," she said. "I really like it. It helps keep us more organized. We can get out what we are doing, and what we still need to accomplish."

Although Balsiger says her blog focuses on her classwork, her weekly updates also include comments about other classes or what she's done during the week. She enjoys using the blog rather than a planner for her class, she said

"It's definitely more fun. It's kind of encouraging because you can leave each other comments.

"I think it's a lot easier to communicate. It feels like something that's ours, but the teacher can look at it too. It's easier than walking up and talking to them, asking something face to face."

Melba Tomeo, assistant professor and education librarian at Slippery Rock University's Bailey Library, has also incorporated blogging into an academic setting. She runs a blog that serves as the library newsletter.

Cites & Bytes @ Bailey, as the blog is titled, has been up and running since October 2004, "so we just passed our one year 'blogaversary,'" she quipped. "Within the first year, we had 7,500 hits. I don't think I could have gotten 7,500 people to read the library newsletter."

Tomeo said she was first introduced to blogging when her sister and brother-in-law created a family blog to share their experiences as they adopted a daughter from China. "When the discussion came around at the library about starting a newsletter, I said, 'Let's start a blog.'"

Now, she says, the library blog has "hits from all over the world. I have a counter that keeps track of what people are looking for when they come (to the site)."

"Blogs are interactive to a degree," Tomeo said. "You can comment and post. You can easily add photos to a blog. Over a Web site, it has some advantages. It's an ongoing discussion. It can be collaborative, and it generates an archive. Some libraries have four or five different blogs going on different topics."

While most people are familiar with Web pages, the concept of blogging burst onto the Internet scene during the last presidential election, Boice and Tomeo said. Blogs serve to give virtually everyone a public forum.

"People get to express their own personal opinion," Boice said. "We are in such a hurry, we are willing to look at anything the media puts in front of us."

She noted that reading the blogs of Katrina survivors, for instance, "helps you put things into perspective and form your own opinions.

"It shows how much the Internet has really entered our lives. People are reading your story in places that you would never be able to go, so they're connected to you somehow," Boice said. "I have seen blogs on every subject, and it fascinates me. There isn't a subject that is not on a blog."

Freeport High School freshman Jeri Brinkley says she keeps blogs on both MySpace.com and Xanga.com because she likes "the fact that I can express myself through writing. You're not going to have to talk with a person and have them interrupt you. And it just lets me have a sense of freedom."

She said communicating through the Internet has become tremendously popular.

"For example," she said, "if one of my friends is going through a tough time with their family, or boy or girl friend, I give them some advice on what they should do."

She notes it's often easier to talk over the Internet.

"There are some topics people don't wish to discuss in public, so we go into each other's homes and talk over the computer. And sometimes, it's easier to truly express how you feel about a certain situation over the computer."

"We are all about the technology," agrees Michael Sybert of Valencia, a 10th grader at Mars High School. "We do it all. The cell phones, the computer, MySpace — all of it."

He said most of his friends have sites, and usually communicate through those sites.

"Instead of using e-mail, we just leave messages," he said. "It's easier."

Although blogs may be an easy way to connect with people throughout the world, it's also important to maintain a safe distance.

"I always worry about that," said Boice. "There are ways to keep yourself fairly well protected. Ways to not give away too much information about yourself."

It is the blogger who controls the amount of information they post about themselves, and they can remain as anonymous as they wish.

Brinkley said she is "not too concerned" with security, because "my parents have both taught me not to let too much information out. And for MySpace, I don't put personal information. The most personal info might be 'What's your Zodiac sign?'"

"Sometimes when you are visiting a blog," Boice says, "you don't know anything about the other person other than what they are writing about. And that's the neat aspect. You don't have to give yourself a face if you don't want to."

Tomeo also noted the importance of considering the consequences before publishing a blog or any personal information on the Internet.

"One of the speakers at a conference I attended talked about the digital footprint you leave," she said. "More and more employers today will Google you when you are applying for a job.

"And when you have children and they grow up, they'll Google you too. So you want to be careful what you put out there. Maybe you can delete it after you bare your soul."