Will My Journal Be Important To Folks In The Future?

[Charles Skinner]

I am a very, very serious journal writer --- since about 1960! Filled many large books. I write every day, often for an hour or so. 95% of my writing has been with real fountain pens. Now, here is a question for you who ALSO are serious journal writers.

 

Do you really think that your "family" will be interested in reading your journals fifty years from now? When people learn that I am a very serious journal writer, they often say something like ----- "Oh! Your children, and grand children, etc. will be so happy! Your journals will be a real treasure to them!"

 

I have really thought a lot about this, and I believe that they will have their own problems and cares in life, and will have very little interest in what I did and what I wrote! Even I, very seldom go back and read what I wrote ten years ago!

 

Journals are interesting if written by a "famous person," but journal of ordinary folks like me, will soon find their way into a "landfill," and the world will go on and on just as if I had never lived. That is just the way things are, ---- and the way things are,---- are likely the way they are supposed to be!

 

So, SO, SO, I do not write with others in mind! I write only "for myself!" To write is to live, --- and to live is to write! ----- (You can quote me on that! Smile!)

 

I may have put a post something like this at some point in the past. Don't remember for sure. If I have, excuse me.

 

Please forgive any mistakes I have made in writing this "post." In my journal, it seems that I am "forever" leaving out words in a sentence! Is it just old age?

 

So, I would like to have the thoughts of you SERIOUS journal writers.

 

C. S. (even though I really write a lot, I will never use up all of the inks I have already bought! --- Any of you in that same boat?)

 

 

[Charles Rice]

Hard to give a definative answer, but I'll give a qualified "yes", they will be important. My greatgrandmother began a journal in 1865. Most of it is rather droll, BUT the picture she paints of every-day life is a treasure.

 

Also, my great uncle kept a journal which includes a trip to California in 1906. It included a description of the great earthquake.

 

Finally, I have a collection of letters from WWII when my father flew B17s. He also was a profession journalist.

 

The qualification is this: They will only be important to those who have a pride in their family and a sense of history.

[inkandseeds]

I doubt it. While Charles Rice above raises some good examples, the wealth of information being kept today will probably diminish the value of a journal. When i was young, people use to talk about how future generations would treasure the photos you took of family. Today, i see family photos offered on eBay for next to nothing. Today, take photo, post on Snapchat, forget. Culture changes.

 

I write for myself, helps me focus on what life is about and what is important.

[Helen350]

I firmly believe your journals will be a treasure to many in your family. It is fascinating to look back at our family history, however, I feel it is equally important the lives you have touched while living. I often reflect on the fact that the letters written by the great Apostle Paul still speak to the hearts of multitudes, from around the world, 2000 yrs after they were written. I never tire of reading them, and am continually inspired, challenged and enlightened by their content.

[ethernautrix]

Currently, I am engaged in what I'm calling the Notebook Lobotomy, which has me slogging through my old notebooks and copying (or summarizing) what I think now I'll enjoy coming across later in a pocket-size Moleskine Diary (if I'm not living it up in my 80s and 90s and have the time and the inclination to pull out the magnifying glass to read them). Then I shred the original notebook's pages.

 

It is ridiculous. Yeah, I know. In a way, it's ridiculous. But I can't keep ALL of these notebooks. If I lived in a house that I've lived in for a significant period of time and had the confidence that I would live there "forever," then I would keep all (or most of) these notebooks, even the on-and-on blathering stupid stuff and the pages and pages of pens-and-inks fussing.

 

If I'm going to leave a record, I'd rather edit out the tedious, repetitive stuff. On the off chance (extremely off chance) that someone will find my notebooks and want to read them, bless their silly hearts, I'd rather leave the record of highlights and horrors with a smattering of routine than this awful repetitive navel-gazing trying-to-figure-out whatever.

 

As I'm going through my various notebooks, I am hoping to flip the switch that will make it easy to dump (shred and recycle) my notebooks without this laborious process of editing. Just toss 'em, the way I toss most pen boxes. I want to let go of the past and focus on NOW. Not deny the past, not not-reminisce now and again, but dragging all these notebooks around? They're so heavy!

 

Besides, I doubt that I will want to slog through them in however many years. Not to mention how many more I will have if I insist on hoarding all of my brain dumps. I think I am interesting, but I am not THAT interesting. (I mean, I like me. I'd read a book of my adventures but not a book of every minute thought I recorded in ink.)

 

 

 

 

 

I will note that I have learned to compile quotations and brief excerpts and other such "timeless" tidbits into a separate journal. If only I'd started this habit thirty years ago.... Sigh.

 

BUT my true feelings about this is that my record will not be important to folks in the future. Unless the Internet breaks and only printed and handwritten materials are left. Then... there's a chance that primary sources about now (which will be history) will be of value (not necessarily mine).

 

 

[Arkamas]

I'm the same. When I first started several years ago I was reserved for the sake that at first I thought I was writing for posterity, but then I began to delve a little more deeply and write with abandon and, to put it bluntly, posterity went out the window. It became a place of release. My fountain pen and thick Italian leather journals are my mind sanctuary. I haven't read them and I don't really remember much of what I write. I write for the sake of writing. I don't know if anyone would have any interest in them beyond the fancy-looking leather tomes that they are.

It's interesting. Anne Frank was simply a young girl hiding in a small building in Europe, who had that same passion for writing. “I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.”

I think your journals could end up being more important than you would think. Maybe people will want to know what you thought of current events at whatever period surrounding your life. Maybe someone down the line with an interest in family history will find them.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Arkamas

[fountainpagan]

Yes, yes, yes.

 

So many things stay untold, so many question are not asked, so many interrogations come to mind once a dear one is gone... I would say keep on, stay to your journal writing habit, until the end.

[LizEF]

I know you said you only wanted replies from serious journal writers, but I'm going to answer anyway. (I'm an occasional journal writer and formerly wrote letters religiously - until people stopped writing back.) Not so long ago, I re-read all the letters between me and my mom & dad (I have both directions) from college and from the 3 years I spent overseas at my first "real" job. It was like having my mom back (she had passed away before I did this). I look forward to reading her journal the next time I go to visit my dad (an annual trip). I'm old enough now to appreciate my mom's perspective, and can read between the lines all the things the young, clueless me never knew.

 

If your children love you, they'll find your journals important.

[abstract49]

This has been discussed at great length in past threads, and everyone's perspective has merit. Personally, I hope that one or more of my descendants will come into possession of my journals and actually be interested in reading them. I know that I wish some of my ancestors had kept journals that I could read today (like my stow-away great-great grandfather from the Azores [but actually French by ethnic origin], who spent a large part of his life at sea).

 

I don't have a clue whether one of my grandchildren or great grandchildren will ever care, but I really hope my observations of 20th & 21st Century life for an ordinary person will one day find an interested reader.

[PaperDarts]

I too have kept a diary/journal for decades, without any thought that anyone aside from me may read them some day. And yet I keep them all! My perspective changed a bit years ago after a conversation with a friend who is a professional archivist. She said that even diaries and letters from those who are not famous, are a treasure trove for archivists and researchers.

 

Maybe some day my descendents might be interested in the journals, if the volumes survive; but it's more likely that they may be of interest to those in future generations trying to understand the thoughts and lives of ordinary people living today. With that in mind, I've arranged for my journals and letters to be offered to a local non-profit archive when I'm no longer around to put pen to paper. The archive said they'd want to have a look at them to determine future value, but they are certainly interested in seeing them.

[Joe in Seattle]

No.

 

After a mishap with a waterbed destroyed 10+ years of daily journals I realized that I had no real use for them. I did not go back and read, nor did I use them for anything else. Now, my practice is to fill three or four books ( about six months worth) and recycle them.

[Bluey]

There may not be any need for journals decades in the future. They'll probably already have telekinesis probes where you step into the cubicle, activate the red(blue for emotions) laser, and it will instantly summarise your thoughts from way back in 20th Feb 2017 in the 21st century.

 

Really, nobody gives a hoot. I think inkandseeds has said it most accurately.

[Charles Skinner]

I like one person's thinking of their journal as being a "mind sanctuary." C. S.

[AlexLeGrande]

I've had the same question and the same thoughts as other posters. Sometimes I imagine my daughter and granddaughter finding interest and perhaps some wisdom in my journals, and other times I see them cleaning out my house after my death and chucking them out with all of the other detritus of my life. I write for me, and I do periodcally reread a page here and there.

[Arkamas]

I like one person's thinking of their journal as being a "mind sanctuary." C. S.

 

You know what I'm actually going to change that to my signature now...

[Soggycitybob]

My recommendation is to keep them. After my grandfather passed away at 94 yrs it was only then I learned of some of his interesting history, including him going to war in WWII, and working for the New Deal CCC (Civilian Conversation Corp). There must have been adventures and untold fantastic tales that I wish I could have uncovered.

 

And who says journaling is only for famous people? I'm sure many a cinematic feature story has been written based on journals and diaries found by loved ones in an old trunk.

 

Write on!

[Polanova]

There may not be any need for journals decades in the future. They'll probably already have telekinesis probes where you step into the cubicle, activate the red(blue for emotions) laser, and it will instantly summarise your thoughts from way back in 20th Feb 2017 in the 21st century.

 

Really, nobody gives a hoot. I think inkandseeds has said it most accurately.

 

 

Me thinks you read too much SciFi How about the very real possibility of a few sun flares transporting us collectively into what David Mitchell called the Endarkenment. All digital information gone in a blast.

 

I write for myself only and don`t care tooo much if anyone ever reads my scribblings. Maybe 20% could be quite interesting for readers of the future.

Like another poster here I`ve read about a hundred letters written by my grandparents and I seriously wish that they`d kept journals.

They didn`t.

I do.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Polanova

[Bluey]

 

 

Me thinks you read too much SciFi How about the very real possibility of a few sun flares transporting us collectively into what David Mitchell called the Endarkenment. All digital information gone in a blast.

 

I write for myself only and don`t care tooo much if anyone ever reads my scribblings. Maybe 20% could be quite interesting for readers of the future.

Like another poster here I`ve read about a hundred letters written by my grandparents and I seriously wish that they`d kept journals.

They didn`t. I do.

Surprisingly, I don't believe I've ever read any sci-fi. Truth is stranger than fiction though, and technology is developing at an exponential rate, so anything is possible I guess. It was only the early 1990s and people were talking about this thing called the internet(no, not THAT internet!) becoming mainstream. Of course, the internet was developed much earlier for military purposes.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Bluey

[Polanova]

Yeah, no one can imagine what it`ll be like 10 or 20 years from now (well, other than that most of our jobs will be gone, courtesy of the Sata...umh...Silicon Valley mad scientists)

The World Wide Spider Web was created in Czern, btw, ca. 1990.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Polanova

[Bluey]

Yeah, no one can imagine what it`ll be like 10 or 20 years from now (well, other than that most of our jobs will be gone, courtesy of the Sata...umh...Silicon Valley mad scientists)

The World Wide Spider Web was created in Czern, btw, ca. 1990.

Nah, the origin is from around 1960s actually. For military purposes. The www ≠ internet

Edited February 20, 2017 by Bluey