In 1918, Spanish illness ravaged Sweden. Twelve-year-old Karl in Jämtland writes in his diary, preserved by the National Archives:
“Another classmate of mine, Olov Olsson in Haxäng, has died in Spanish, 13 years old. I drove there with a wreath from my comrades and saw him in the coffin. "
During times of crisis, the interest in writing a diary seems to increase. Many have the feeling of being in a historical stage and both county museums and the Smithsonian (one of the world's largest museums), researchers and the media collect the everyday stories of the population.
Of course, even the 90's most famous diary writer, Bridget Jones, has picked up the diary in quarantine and the newspaper The Times publishes it.
But what does diary writing do for function and is it really worth preserving thousands of stories from the quarantine where nothing happens?
See the author Malin Persson Giolito, isolated in the home in Belgium, and Jonas Engman, ethnologist at the Nordic Museum in the clip above.