Week 2: Online Diaries

I have tried when I was younger to keep some type of journal about my life, but I couldn't keep up with it.  I often found that they were boring, because nothing much happened in my life.  I always thought that reality was boring and that's why I'm always so invested in fictional and fantasy stories.  I love the world of unknown and magical possibilities.  So, for me to write about my boring everyday life, it was a bit droll.

While I may think writing a journal or diary entry might be boring, I can understand their appeal to other people.  I think that others might find it interesting to learn about somebody else’s life.  Maybe you’re not happy in your own, or don’t find as many things happening in your life that you would like to.  So maybe you turn to reading the diaries of others and find that you become invested in their lives.  Reading their journals might make you feel better and they could even allow you a way to connect with others.  If someone writes about issues you might also be facing it becomes a great connection for the reader.  Now there is someone dealing with the same problems you are and it’s not so lonely anymore.

I think that diaries are a great way to explain how you’re feeling about something that happened to you.  Even though most diaries are used for this I don’t think that that necessarily means they are only written in stream of consciousness.  I know that there are writers that just write whatever comes to mind as they go, but I don’t think that’s the case for all diaries.  When people write about their day, they typically have something specific or important they want to emphasize about it.  This usually means that some time will be taken to think about in which way they want to share those ideas.

Since diaries are typically just used to express yourself and talk about your day, I don’t think grammar and spelling are that important.  If it’s a personal diary, grammar doesn’t matter as much because you know what you’re trying to say in your writing.  I think in a public diary, writing might matter just a tad more, but also, I can’t imagine too many people caring about the spelling.  They are not professional writers and authors and can’t be expected to know every rule in the book about writing.  As long as the writing is comprehendible, I think that there should be no problem in how they want to write, especially if it’s just a hobby.  As far as involving other people and their names into your public diary, I think it would be unfair to add them without them consenting to it.  Essentially you are also telling people a part about their lives too, and they should have a right to accept or deny them being a part of it.

So, all in all I don’t have a major issue with writing about yourself online.  I think it’s a nice way to connect with people and share how you feel about something.  However, when you use that ability in a negative sense, I don’t think that’s okay.  For example, if someone is saying completely uncalled for things or lies about somebody else using social media, I think that that’s kind of low and unnecessary.