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Research released today has identified that the art of diary-keeping is in significant decline thanks in no small part to the popularity of blogging and web sites.

The survey of 1,000 people in the UK, commissioned by broadcaster Sky to mark the launch of the 2007 Sky Young Journalist

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Awards shows that fewer than one in 10 young people take the time to write a traditional diary, compared with 47 per cent who share their innermost thoughts by blogging online.

Blogs - short for web logs - are personal web sites where people publish their diaries or thoughts, talk about current affairs or link to other stories or pictures on the internet.

The poll found that the average teenager spends 4.5 hours a week blogging online or visiting social-sharing sites on the Internet such as MySpace and YouTube, with 22 percent of teenagers blogging five times a week or more.

While bloggers were happy to reveal their deepest selves to the world they were less keen on their parents and relatives reading their blogs - 46 per cent of respondents said their family were unaware they were blogging.