Hmm. Personal diaries seem hostage to writing material cheap enough for such uses -- paper, maybe clay? parchmen only if you're rich enough. Wikipedia says the oldest extant diaries are from Asian court ladies; we've got diarists from the Renaissance but that's into the paper era for the West. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius seem to qualify, though; philosophical musings written on campaign.
I see mention of Babylonian "Astronomical Diaries", recording astronomical and political events; logkeeping of important events probably pre-dates personal events. The page says some of the entries are "Sky was cloudy" or "I did not watch." http://www.livius.org/di-dn/diaries/astronomical_diaries.html
http://electroniciraq.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/10/360 Tangential, but a 2300 BC poem by a Sumerian woman, said to be among the first literary works with a known author.
I'm seeing letters in a website of Sumerian, mostly to or from kings. The only extant writings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus are three letters to friends, preserved by an ancient biographer. I see mention of cuneiform recipes and receipts, Egyptian letters.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/world.html "The papyri used for making cartonnage [mummy wrappings] often came from recycling bins in administrative offices." Another page mentions "memoranda" in ancient Egypt.
So: communicating with other individuals goes back to writing. Communicating with self in small notes probably does as well. Communicating with self en masse is less clear and may have been too expensive for most. Communicating with others en masse, well, someone would have to copy the letters. This is probably how the Epistles of the New Testament spread, and I think Renaissance times had individuals who would collect letters and send updates out to other scientists, proto-journals.
Without even printing, distributed communication is a pain. China had movable type around 1000 AD and thus cheapish books; I don't see mention of newspapers. People's impulses are roughly the same, but what they can do, and thus what they think of doing, is subject to technology. No writing, writing, writing with cheap medium, printing, electronic editing, electronic networks: each one gives more options for what you can do, which might be novel but quickly graspable to someone from a previous stage.
no subject
I see mention of Babylonian "Astronomical Diaries", recording astronomical and political events; logkeeping of important events probably pre-dates personal events. The page says some of the entries are "Sky was cloudy" or "I did not watch."
http://www.livius.org/di-dn/diaries/astronomical_diaries.html
http://electroniciraq.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/10/360
Tangential, but a 2300 BC poem by a Sumerian woman, said to be among the first literary works with a known author.
I'm seeing letters in a website of Sumerian, mostly to or from kings. The only extant writings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus are three letters to friends, preserved by an ancient biographer. I see mention of cuneiform recipes and receipts, Egyptian letters.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/papyrus/texts/world.html
"The papyri used for making cartonnage [mummy wrappings] often came from recycling bins in administrative offices." Another page mentions "memoranda" in ancient Egypt.
So: communicating with other individuals goes back to writing. Communicating with self in small notes probably does as well. Communicating with self en masse is less clear and may have been too expensive for most. Communicating with others en masse, well, someone would have to copy the letters. This is probably how the Epistles of the New Testament spread, and I think Renaissance times had individuals who would collect letters and send updates out to other scientists, proto-journals.
Without even printing, distributed communication is a pain. China had movable type around 1000 AD and thus cheapish books; I don't see mention of newspapers. People's impulses are roughly the same, but what they can do, and thus what they think of doing, is subject to technology. No writing, writing, writing with cheap medium, printing, electronic editing, electronic networks: each one gives more options for what you can do, which might be novel but quickly graspable to someone from a previous stage.