It’s one of the oldest stories in the book; an honest, kind person ends up discovering that their best friend or family member has been keeping a diary in which they reveal that they actually hate the person discovering it. If you’ve ever been tempted to snoop around someone’s bedroom or go through their belongings when they aren’t looking, stop right now and read this article instead to find out why you shouldn’t read someone’s diary.
It can be hard to resist the temptation to sneak into someone’s house and take a peek at their personal diary. The problem with reading someone’s diary, however, goes far beyond being found out and getting in trouble for trespassing or breaking-and-entering—it can result in much worse things than that. This article explains why you should never read someone’s diary, no matter how curious you are about what they have to say.
If they want you to know, they’ll tell you
Diaries are personal and private. If you don’t have permission to read someone’s diary, it is like sneaking a peek at something intimate or sacred. They wouldn’t want you to read their diary if they knew that was what you were doing because they’d be mad. When you read someone’s diary without permission, it can make them feel violated. One person would not like how another person has been writing about them or writing about things that should be kept private and only for the writer of the diary to know about themselves. It could ruin friendships and make people uncomfortable.
Privacy builds trust
Privacy is the basis of any trusting relationship. It makes the other person feel comfortable enough to share themselves with you, knowing that you won’t pass their story around for entertainment or for a quick buck. If a person trusts you enough to share their story with you, then it would be a betrayal if you decided to break that trust and share what they told you without permission. Plus, it is just not your place to go digging around in someone else’s private space. It doesn’t matter how curious you are about the contents of someone’s diary, there are much better ways to find out what they’re up to than by reading it. What would happen if someone broke into your room and read all of your private thoughts? I’m sure you’d want to kill them! Keep others’ secrets safe from prying eyes: As an outsider looking in on someone else’s life, you never know what you might uncover. And while curiosity can sometimes have benefits – this isn’t one of those times.
Reading it out of curiosity is like stealing
When someone gives you something that belongs to them and doesn’t want you to read it, the worst thing you can do is open it up. It’s a lot like looking through their wallet or stealing something out of their bag without asking. If they don’t want you to read it, they probably have a good reason and as a close friend, you should respect that. That being said, if they tell you not to read it but then hand it over anyways and ask what you think, then by all means let them know what you think! But if they don’t want you reading their diary…just don’t. The person who owns the diary has put in a lot of time writing down their thoughts and memories and they deserve privacy with these things. If they’re willing to show you their entries, be thankful for that privilege, because your best friends are few and far between so don’t risk losing them by doing something disrespectful like going through private stuff in front of other people or even worse: showing it off on social media where anyone can see. So next time someone tells you Don’t read my diary, just stop yourself from reaching for it because your best friends might need your help someday soon–in any capacity–and will appreciate your concern enough to repay the favor when it counts most.
They might be ready to deal with it while you’re not yet
If you happen to find someone’s diary in a desk drawer, don’t even think about reading it. They may have chosen to share the content of the diary with someone close and need more time to process what they are feeling. It might not be something they want exposed yet. Even if they are ready, chances are that you’re not. Think of how you would feel if a diary you’ve written was read by a friend or relative. Chances are, it would be pretty uncomfortable. As much as your curiosity might want to take hold and force yourself through all of the passages, just know that many people who write in diaries never intend for anyone else but themselves to read them.
It might leave a bad impression on you
The easiest way to make a person feel violated is to read their diary. This has the power to steal someone’s deepest, most personal thoughts and expose them to the world. For this reason, you should never read someone else’s diary – it can leave them feeling betrayed and violated in a way that may be irreparable.
All of our thoughts are personal – even if we write them down in order to help us understand them better. Reading someone else’s innermost thoughts is an invasion of privacy that leaves that person vulnerable and exposed on the internet. In light of these facts, I recommend following this advice: don’t read somebody else’s diary! It might change your perspective on them or force you to feel sorry for them. It might even make you more understanding of what they’re going through and be able to provide some support for them. But it will also do damage to your relationship with that person and destroy any trust they had in you. So please, just don’t read someone else’s diary – no matter how tempting it might seem!
Sharing secrets makes them lose their power over your relationship
Some people say that reading someone’s diary is like an invasion of privacy, but sometimes it can be downright dangerous. Sometimes your best friend will tell you a secret, which might make you think that you know their every secret, and then turn around and get mad at you for not sharing some things with them. If you’re lucky, this might just cause friction in your relationship or disappointment in each other; if you’re unlucky, the secret could actually be about something illegal or hurtful to others that the person may do. When somebody tells you a deep dark secret, it makes them lose power over it–and when they’ve lost power over it then they don’t want to keep it close to their chest any more. They’ll feel better telling it to somebody else and letting them have some of the power, too. The more people who know a secret, the less control that one person has over it: They might try to keep it a secret from one person but then spill everything out to another. Maybe they’ll confide in one person but gossip about another behind their back–it’s all up in the air!
