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How Diaries Evolved from Lists to Personal Histories (slate.com)
30 points by pepys 83 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 12 comments



I'd like to know how others think about the hypothesis of the pandemic causing the next evolution? With the proliferation of habit trackers and productivity tools. What's begun is focusing less on the spiritual and more on actions.

I've personally been fascinated by the idea of personal history for 2 years now. Especially using personal history to improve how I live or want to live tomorrow.

For my own journal I have chosen to capture more objective facts e.g. the actions in my day-to-day life. And place less effort on recording more subjective reactions like my mood.


>I'd like to know how others think about the hypothesis of the pandemic causing the next evolution? With the proliferation of habit trackers and productivity tools. What's begun is focusing less on the spiritual and more on actions.

I have also had thoughts about this. I do think that having time to themselves made some humans (and perhaps humanity as a whole) more reflective.

But also I dont think it's sustainable. Already, most offices have been pushing workers to return. We are sliding back into the old ways.

And people no longer have as much time to reflect, to be thoughtful.

>For my own journal I have chosen to capture more objective facts e.g. the actions in my day-to-day life. And place less effort on recording more subjective reactions like my mood.

I have some reservations about this.

Our moods and feelings tell us a lot about ourselves, things that we are not conscious of.

And writing about these subtle moods and feelings helps me be more conginizant of those things.


It’s a subtle aspect of moods and emotions that we are not privileged to know their impetuses. Yet, to learn them can be as simple as asking the subconscious of this, and this is a crucial function of free writing.


I have been keeping a personal diary since I was about 13 years old. It's my private space to reflect on experiences, thoughts, emotions. It helps me to manage stress, anxiety! I highly recommend this practice!


Took up journaling late last year on Julia Cameron’s suggestion (“The Artist’s Way” prescribes for artists a daily, morning free writing exercise). It is a distinctly effective way to neutralize ruminating thoughts, pull apart confusing feelings, de-censor myself from myself; simply put, I have been able to raise my consciousness through journaling.


Agreed. Huge help for anxiety. The other side is to make sure no one reads it.

Or, to just state facts and not actually bring in emotional states.


I wouldn't do it out of fear that someone else might find it and read it. Having been witness to the fallout of such an event, friendships were ruined, a relationship ended, and there was much emotional pain.

Some things are just best kept inside one's own head.


I intermittently keep a diary, mostly of travel and of recent reading. There are no or few personal reflections in it.

About 20 years ago I kept a more personal journal for a while. About 10 years ago, I shredded it.


I'm partial to burning my journals after some time. It's highly cathartic to see your thoughts and feelings scribed onto the page and removed from existence, as if to underscore the fleeting, temporary nature of them.


That seems like a reasonable middle ground that might be useful.


Such thoughts never do more harm than when they are trapped in our heads. Fortunately, paper notes, unlike digital ones, can be made to disappear without a trace.


OP - any relationship to your username?




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