Surfing random websites in her free time, senior Erin Archerd spots a picture of a silver Jaguar XK8. With a quick copy-paste, she posts the photo to her online journal and appends a note: “XK8—you’ll always be my baby . . . but in green of course.”

Archerd’s weblog, or “blog” for short, is not only a repository for cool pictures, links and anecdotes, but also a forum for rants, inside jokes and personal reflection.

Archerd and hundreds of other Stanford students have joined the millions worldwide who blog, writing regularly in journals hosted by such sites as Blogger, LiveJournal or Diaryland. Xanga alone boasts more than 280 Stanford bloggers. Head of residential computing Rich Holeton, ’75, characterizes blogs as a new genre of literature centered around their authors’ online and offline lives. For students, these public diaries allow friends separated by distance to keep in touch and provide an outlet for post-teen angst.

“Everybody’s journal is a reflection of their personality,” says Archerd, who splashes her site with pictures of California poppies and links to memorable articles—just because she feels like it. “I’ll include something that’s heavy, but not all of my posts are deep.”

While she spends one to two hours each week updating her journal, Archerd devotes more time to reading friends’ and classmates’ new entries, sometimes posting comments.

In response to an entry in which a close friend lamented being a virgin, Archerd wrote, “I’m not saying you need deep, everlasting love—but you should be able to look back on the person and feel glad you did it with him.” Archerd believes her commentary will provide support and comfort when she doesn’t necessarily have time for a phone call.

Some posts divulge surprisingly intimate details, even though blogs can be viewed by anyone with Internet access. “People write anything in online journals because they feel anonymous but still reach a large audience,” says junior Waynn Lue, who posts technology articles, humorous anecdotes and fragments of instant messenger conversations to his blog. “Like they say, you can be anyone you want to be on the Internet.”

Stanford students’ blogs aren’t commanding widespread attention—Archerd’s draws about 70 visits a week; Lue’s receives an average of 18 per day. But they have emerged as a powerful component of the campus mating dance. “I don’t read online journals unless I have a crush on the person,” says freshman Yi-ren Chen. “If you know their personal thoughts, then you can turn them to your advantage”—ordering the other person’s favorite ice cream flavor on a first date, for instance.

Archerd knows too well how online journals can make or break relationships. She once posted the results of an online tarot card reading to her blog. The last card illustrated a couple leaping from a tower engulfed in flames. The next day, her boyfriend called and—citing this fateful card—said it might be better if they started seeing other people.

“Of course I have put things on my blog that I have regretted having people know,” Archerd says, noting that past entries about romantic relationships have touched off firestorms of gossip. “There’s always danger involved in how much you choose to reveal, especially since anybody can read it.”

—CAMILLE RICKETTS, ’06