Week 1: Burn After Reading

I think that in this day in age, with technology where it's at now, "diaries" and the different distinctions are a bit more particular. I would consider a diary different from a journal, different from a blog.

A diary, I feel, has juvenile connections. Most of the people I know that keep some sort of record of their life in a book, stopped calling that book a "diary" a long time ago. I feel like it's something that you write in every day and that you fear other people finding out about and reading it because there might be social consequences - there are names that a dropped, events that happened that you wouldn't repeat to your mother, etc. Or maybe I just don't like the term because it's easy to misspell it as dairy.

To me, a journal would be something that you keep as an adult, and you write about more mature concepts - not just the daily gossip. You kind of talk yourself through problems, or contemplate existentialism, whatever. These are your thoughts in its purest form. A blog can borrow some of these aspects, however, the posts go through "wordshop" and are highlighted, cropped, and have filter slapped on it to make it more appealing to the public. It's almost a rare instance where someone posts something online without the intention of it getting likes or views to help the poster's internet fame.

That being said, I keep what I consider a journal. By no means do I update it regularly, in fact I find myself going back to it only when I need to. It helps to keep me grounded. The daily stresses in life throw a bunch of problems at you both big and small. If there's no ear to hear your grief in the wee hours of the morning, then that pen and paper will listen and help you work it out.

I find that my voice in my journal is nearly identical to the voice I have online. That's not the case for everyone.Though I think it should be, it creates a degree of transparency. However, not everything should be everyone's business - people should pick and choose what they share online. I don't think that sharing too much would make you lose your sense of purpose, but you might lose some readers or followers.

Those that post online don't write from a stream of consciousness - even as I write this post, I'm mulling over the sentences in my head to make sure they're free of any grammatical, spelling or syntax errors - and while they take that pause to check they're also thinking about what would spruce things up a bit as far as their content goes. They do this because they know their audience at least at the base level. People like to read other people's blogs because it's a form of escape. They read what they think would be an interesting life, then fantasize what would it would be like to be in the situations that they read about and live vicariously through them. If you think about it, blog reading has a very similar function to books. But it's also kinda creepy.