In the world of instant sharing and constant updates, it can be hard to have some genuine thoughts to oneself. Now, this isn’t to say that social media does not have it’s purpose. Social media is a potential tool for social catharsis. However, I propose that journaling is really what people need in order to have a deep and personal experience with their thoughts. Therefore, please permit me for a moment, to share from personal experience my belief why journaling is superior to social media. Being with and seeing one’s own thoughts in a journal is very different, and I would like to share how I experienced the shift.
Almost every week of undergrad I had a major assignment due. From papers, to coding projects, to research, it was hard to take personal time to actually order my thoughts. Yet every so often, an urge to share what some of my thoughts and feelings were would arise. So, I would take to the one place that I knew was always there: Social Media. With Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, expressing one's thoughts is common, yet lacks the in depth contemplation everyone craves. In every post I made, I never felt fully satisfied with what I wrote—something genuine was missing. With time limits, character restrictions, and memes galore, it can be hard to confidently and organically share what is really on one’s mind. Sure, we can all express happiness, sadness, and anger on social media easily. But just because it’s easy, does not make it genuine.
That's where journaling comes and breaks down that barrier. For example, when I studied abroad in Ireland as a last "hoorah!" for my time in undergrad (and yes, it was so worth the extra student loan debt), I took the time to journal about my personal thoughts and adventures. At first, it felt incredibly tedious and rather angsty. It was not a part of my everyday routine to secretly share with a small journal what my thoughts were. I mean, after all, isn’t that what Facebook posts are for? What good are these written words if I can’t share and get some form of praise for my intellect? A small journal can’t provide this gratification. My thoughts could never be validated from a silent, string bound journal.
Luckily for me, that small journal proved me wrong. With each passing day, my thoughts began to build and develop in each stroke of my pen. Many anxious thoughts cleared away as more contemplative ones took their place, like is the beauty of the Irish mountains subjective or is that really God’s handiwork? In each excursion across the ancient island, my desire to record and share my thoughts with this small journal grew. With every word, more revelations appeared. There was an internal power that was being built within myself. That power in turn manifested into the written words laid forth on my journal’s pages, completely free of contaminating third party opinions. It was glorious!
You see, with a journal, there is no peer pressure to write a certain way. Within a journal, the writer can determine for herself what words appear and how best to describe and iterate what they are experiencing. Journaling becomes a catharsis from the modern day buzz we all endure. Journaling becomes our personal reflection and holiday from the demands of conformity, and who wouldn’t want that? Thanks to journaling I grew not only into an intellectually courageous woman, but a spiritually strong woman in my faith. That in return gave me the tools I needed to become goal oriented and ready for my current career. Nothing in the social media world can really top that, not even Instagram (a shock, I know).
All that being said, I hope this article and the example from my life articulate some of the greater benefits afforded by personal journaling. Journaling is a raw and uncensored experience that can be the strongest tool to facilitate more intimacy with oneself and consequently with others. This is something brushed over in the contemporary age. Technology might be innovative, but there are some things only paper and pen can truly uncover, capture, and help discover (says the IT girl). For that, I am truly blessed in having my small journal.
