I started keeping a journal when I was 13.
My mom and I had just moved from Denmark to the south of Spain, and I was alone in a new country where I knew nobody, didn't know the language, and mostly was surrounded by retired people.
I started journaling because it was a way to "have a conversation" when there was nobody else around, and because it all felt so strange that "creating a record of daily life," just felt like it might be a wise thing to do.
You know, for future reference.
On some level, you could almost say that keeping a journal was a little bit like having an "invisible friend." Although I didn't recognize it at the time, I have since come to truly appreciate the therapeutic value of journaling.
Writing has often served as my "therapist" to get me through some of my darker periods of life; a way to work through my thoughts and feelings about difficult subjects.
I suppose we all have our own ways of dealing with things; mine was born out of the fact that I quite literally didn't really have any peers to talk to.
And the Audience IS...?
It really wasn't until this thing we call "blogging" came along that it ever occurred to me that my words would ever be seen by anyone aside from myself.
I simply wrote, oblivious to the potential or possibility that someone else would see my words.
Maybe that was what (originally) made it such a healing process... when nobody's around, you don't tend to self-edit. And when you don't tend to self-edit, you really do get down inside some of the more difficult thoughts swirling around your head.
Sadly, those journals no longer exist (long story!), but they definitely served their purpose.
Blogging... and Sincerity
When we write blogs, we tend to edit ourselves a bit, for any number of reasons.
In many cases, people who like to write a lot just tell stories because they are more focused on gaining readership than on sharing authentically; popularity becomes more important than sincerity.
For many long-term journal writers, our words don't necessarily change much, but we fall into that pattern of "self-editing," I mentioned before... or — *as is often my own tendency — we are 100% ourselves, but *our potential audience just doesn't get to SEE everything.
It's not true for everyone, of course... and some people go a bit overboard, banking on some kind of shock value in being — perhaps — overly "sincere" in their sharing.
"Journal" Entry vs. "Article"
Perhaps my own weakness — or, at least, where my writing has lost some of its cathartic value — is that I worry too much about creating "article-like" content, which typically steers a wide path around the incoherent inner rambling I sometimes experience.
"Because who the hell would want to READ that???"
When then brings us full circle back to the original question of WHO we write for. It may seem obvious, but it's actually not always so easy to pinpoint.
I recognize — for myself — that I'd still be writing a lot of this stuff, even if there were zero audience. The fact that there is audience represents a sort of bonus, rather than a reason for writing.
As such, I feel pretty comfortable in saying that I pretty much still write for MYSELF. And maybe that is the closest to an authentic use of journaling... regardless of whether or not the content/message is interesting.
Because life is often pretty mundane and UN-interesting, isn't it?
Thanks for reading!
How about YOU? Who do YOU write for? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200601 15:46 PDT
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