Blogging v Journaling

Something I’ve been thinking about.

I used to write a diary, a journal really. It was sporadic and intermittent – occasionally years would go by unnoticed. The last time I did so was back in 2006. Since then any urges toward self-expression have tended to go here on my blog. So let’s compare and contrast:

Pros of Blogging

• More people read it – can reach out and make connections with others
• It lives out there, in cyberspace – less prone to being lost, deleted etc.
• feedback – it’s nice when someone likes what you’ve written, it’s even nice to argue sometimes

Cons of Blogging

• More people read it – people I wouldn’t necessarily want to know my innermost thoughts read it. So those thoughts don’t get written here.
• To make a “success” (i.e. get it read) of a blog you have to promote it. That’s work
• Feedback – takes a critical mass of readers I think.
• It matters whether you’re interesting to just yourself

Pros of Journaling

• Complete privacy, complete honesty – say what you like about whatever or whoever you like.
• No need to explain. I can write “Sheila upset me over the penguin incident” without having a 500-word (ok a 1000 it’s me) pre-amble so that sentence makes sense
• Because I write about stuff maybe only I’m interested in, I have a record of thoughts and feelings that I’ll probably still interested in in years to come. I’ll probably find it cool to look back because I may have forgotten much of it.

Cons of Journaling

• Takes as much time and effort as blogging (roughly) but little possibility of feedback unless I actively show it to someone.
• Re-reading old entries can lead to an unhealthy nostalgia (the reason I don’t still have my earliest journals)
• Repetitive – the same themes come out. My life isn’t that interesting all the time, even to me.

Not sure how that tots up, or how to score it. Just put down some of the thoughts I’ve been having about it. I think I’m going to try keeping a journal again.