With the exception of a period in junior high, I’ve never really kept a journal (I think I may have anticipated the Internet because I wrote my journal back then as though it would be read by the public.)
But beginning in early March 1993 when we first got on the Internet, my cousin/best friend and I have maintained an intensive e-mail correspondence that is tantamount to journaling. We’ve shared our stories and told each other just about everything over these 15+ years. We used to share this stuff by phone; I can now recall only two phone conversations we’ve had in 15 years. She just told me a poignant story about failing to connect with her husband at the airport.
We’ve tapered off some in recent years. The novelty has worn off, and we’re both busy.
But I’ve noticed a new phenomenon recently. We’re both fairly avid Twitter users, and we now seem to be letting the micro-blogging of Twitter stand in for the intensive e-mail journaling of old. If we forget to to tell each other something, we’ll often catch up through Twitter Tweets. She’ll often ask me to elaborate on something I’ve posted on Twitter.
After she returned from the same trip where she feared her husband hadn’t arrived at the airport to pick her up, she detailed her travels to me, as we usually do.
But I found myself lazily responding: “Anything that’s new in my life, you can probably find on Twitter.”
I think I’m sad about losing my journaling outlet even though I like the shorthand of Twitter.