I received my first blank journal when I was 8 years old. From that day forward I went through fazes of how regularly I wrote in it, but between all of my journals, I have precious memories that would long be forgotten had I not taken the time to write them down.
It seems that now that a lot of people blog or do social networking, a written journal is becoming less favorable, but what if you only wrote a sentence a day?
How descriptive of your life is your Facebook status? Usually, Facebook users write a short, easy to understand description of what they are doing or what happened to them that day. Sadly, 20 years down the road you won't be able to log onto Facebook and see all of your favorite status'. If something in your life is worthy enough to be shared with all 592 of your "friends," couldn't it be worthy enough to share with your children and grandchildren?
All you have to do is keep a journal next to your computer and write down that status with the date. If you feel it needs more description for you to understand, add that. This is an easy way to record little glimpses into your life. Or, you could just copy and paste your status into a computer journal and print that out occasionally. I have been doing this for a few months and have had so much fun with it. I still go in my journal and write longer entries, but this is short and simple!
I'm linking up to Homemaker Monday @ 11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven, Market Yourself Monday @ Sumos Sweet Stuff, and Works For Me Wednesday @ We Are That Family.
I love my wife and have been trying to get her to follow Lifehacker for a long time. If she had, she would know that it is simple to download your entire Facebook account and everything it says so you can go back 10 years later and see all the goofy things you wrote as your status.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, writing in a journal has many more benefits that are worthy and meritorious, which I think was the point of this post: being able to write something you want people to know when your dead as opposed to right now, being able to write something you are not ready to subject to public scrutiny, remembering how to write with a pen, relieving you of the need to share every little thing with people on facebook that probably don't care about every little thing, etc.
I like this post Judy! I think you miss a lot of the "heart" of a person with only short status updates.
ReplyDeleteMy post tomorrow is about the therapy of writing:)
Good point. I love journals but haven't been very good at keeping one lately.
ReplyDeleteI have started a tradition of writing 1 journal page for each of my kids about every 1-2 months. I just write little notes on the calendar during that time so when I sit down to write I have something to go from. I love this tradition and think they will too.
P.S. Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my blog!