Well, I thought that I’d talk about why “offline” diaries – or, if you want to sound posh, “journals” – still matter in the age of the internet. Because, yes, things like social media and smartphone cameras allow you to document your life. Even when traditional blogs were in their heyday, many of them were diary-like things where people documented their lives.
Yet, traditional “offline” diaries still matter for a ton of reasons. Whether this is an elaborate vellum “journal” and an expensive fountain pen, a cheap practical notebook and a biro/gel pen/rollerball pen, or even just a plain text file in whatever “notebook” program your computer has. Traditional “offline” diaries still matter for a lot of reasons.
A lot of these boil down to “A private space, away from the sight or opinions of others”, but why does this matter?
1) No audience: If you’re publishing stuff on the internet, then you’re going to want to appeal to an audience. This is a limitation.
This is why, for example, this site seems to focus on a slightly more limited range of topics (eg: Art, videogames, nostalgia, music etc...) a lot of the time. But they are hardly the only things that matter to me. Whilst there are brief occasional elements or examples, I don’t really write that many articles here about – for example – various introspective stuff, my metaphysical beliefs, my political opinions etc… Mostly because I’d worry about alienating some portion or another of the audience. Or starting arguments or whatever.
Yet, these things – and many more – are still important and meaningful enough to me that I need to write about them at length on a vaguely regular basis. And this is one reason why things like “offline” journals still matter in the modern age. Sometimes, you just need to write about meaningful stuff – which might not be “mainstream” or “relatable” to others or, for professionals, *retching noises* “monetisable”.
2) A more peaceful internet: The internet would be a much more peaceful place if more people kept “offline” diaries. In short, they give you all of the cathartic satisfaction of leaving an angry online comment, but without all of the hassle of actually leaving an angry online comment.
If you see something on the internet which infuriates you enough that you have to express your feelings, then channelling them into a private diary not only lets you get the anger out of your system – but it also has the added benefit that there are no moderators or censorship, so you can really let rip.
Angry online comments rarely do any good – they rarely change people’s minds or improve things. People either ignore them or become more entrenched in their own opinions. If you’re that angry about something, it’s often better to furiously scrawl something out in a notebook than to make the internet a worse place by posting it online. And, yes, as someone who ended up writing a rant about a word processor program earlier this year, I can understand the temptation. Still, most of the time, it’s better for all concerned to keep these rants offline. You’ll still get the catharsis of writing them and you’ll have a bit more freedom to really be forthright and/or cynical.
3) Introspection: You’ll get to know yourself better. You can just write out your thoughts, reactions, opinions, emotions, experiences etc… in whatever way feels intuitive or natural to do so, and you’ll learn a lot about yourself from this.
You’ll get a better sense of your actual personality, your sensibilities and quirks, your sense of humour etc… And, given that you literally have to spend every waking moment around yourself, it makes sense to at least get to know yourself. Who knows, you might even actually like yourself?
4) Focus: There’s less “noise”. It’s a peaceful space. There are no adverts, no “notifications”, no “updates”, no pop-ups, no popularity contests, no “clickbait”, no scare-mongering news headlines, no “culture wars”, no “FOMO” etc…
A simple physical page or even a plain text window is just a space without noise. A space where no-one else but yourself is competing for your attention. A space where every word, every piece of information in front of you is something which you have both chosen and created.
5) You matter: An “offline” diary is a space where you actually matter. A space where you can tell the story of your life, completely unopposed or unchallenged, and see it as important.
The modern world likes to tell us all that we don’t really matter that much. But, when you write a diary, you matter. You’re the narrator – not [insert tech company here], not [insert newspaper here], not [insert political party here], not [insert pre-made worldview here] etc… – it is your story and your life and you matter. The diary would not exist without you. It would not be your diary without you. When you write a diary, you matter.
6) Tradition: There’s a timelessness to diaries. Not only will you be part of a tradition stretching back at least centuries, but it’s something which can be a reassuring constant in your life too.
Yes, you might gradually progress from angst-ridden teenage scrawlings to the deep thoughts of a thirty-something but, if you keep an “offline” diary for long enough, then it becomes this wonderfully reassuring tradition. A sanctuary which you can return to, a thread running through years of your life. A relatively unchanged thing in a changing world. A companion.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting