Modern Diary Examples

Expression flowing through fingertips

In modern day, adolescents use the digital space to express themselves. It is this updated space they have control over, in congruence to the diary. In traditional diary examples, the diary is a safe space that can be publicized, should the writer choose to do so. In a digital space, thoughts and expressions are expected to be publicly seen. This concept may alter the written content. With this in mind, adolescents continue to use writing as an outlet to express themselves, but the words are more carefully constructed into sentences.

Blogs

According to Merriam Webster, a blog is “a website that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks, videos, and photographs provided by the writer”

Blogs are frequently updated digital spaces allowing anyone to express their personal thoughts and opinions through their own creative style and aesthetic. This space is easy and free to use, so much so that regardless of a person’s age or credibility, they are able to be published.

Privacy is what sets traditional diary writing and digital writing apart.

Boyd, D. (2015). It’s complicated the social lives of networked teens. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Adolescents struggle to find the perfect space to express themselves.

They are

“damned if they publish their personal thoughts to public spaces, and damned if they create private space that parents can’t see” (54).

Found on freepik

Adolescents have to appease their parents who think too much is shared on social media. Youths are technology early adopters. Facebook, specifically was made for college students to connect with one another, and as it has evolved as a social platform, it has catered to every age group alongside other platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter. Modern day adolescents are able to claim the social media space as their own, using as a means of self-expression. However,

“there's a big difference between being in public and being public. Teens want to gather in public environments to socialize, but they don't necessarily want every vocalized expression to be publicized. Yet, because being in a networked public — unlike gathering with friends in a public park — often makes interactions more visible to adults, mere participation in social media can blur these two dynamics” (55).

In the eyes of youths, their content is not to be consumed by just anybody, just like the traditional journal. There is an unspoken social media code of conduct among adolescents because the digital space is an extension of real space, where endless opportunities for creativity and self-expression presents itself. The digital space congregates anyone who uses it, but in the adolescent’s eyes, its content is not meant for everyone on it.

“In 2012, when I asked teens who were early adopters of Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram why they preferred these services to Facebook, I heard a near-uniform response: ‘Because my parents don't know about it.’ The sites of practice change, but many teens get frustrated when adults "invade" teen-centric spaces, and so, in an attempt to achieve privacy, some move on to newer sites and apps to avoid parents and other adults” (57).

Adults, specifically parents assume a didactic role in their child’s lives where they cling on to their control through trying to teach their children right from wrong. Adolescents traditionally, found the diary space as a place to vent and express themselves without judgment. The digital space has evolved into a place for self-expression but there are new variables to consider, that was not an obstacle when using the physical diary; content is attainable by anyone who wants to attain it.

Brooke, S. L., & Horovitz, E. G. (2017). Combining the creative therapies with technology: Using social media and online counseling to treat clients.

Chapter 6: Art Therapy Blogging with Adolescents

by Jennifer Byxbee and Amanda Zucker

Chapter 6 of this book focuses on ways in which the Internet can be used as a therapeutic tool for adolescents to explore their identities, relationships and various modes of communication.

“Adolescents are drawn to social media because it validates their presence. Postings on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram allow teens to assert themselves through posts and to receive feedback from their peers via posted comments, “likes,” “favorites,” and other signals” (86).

Adolescents need validation in the content they post from their peers. Instant gratification makes adolescents feel as if they are accepted in society and that they are on the right track in reaching their full potential. Receiving positive feedback from an audience motivates teens to post to their networks, boosting social capital. Social capital is the value that a resource provides based on trust and impact that these resources will have on a group. If adolescents feel as if they gain social capital from their content, people will see them as trustworthy and valuable.

This source explores how therapy discussions reveals what adolescents are posting, what the meaning of their post is and implications of what they’re sharing online.

“Using the blog in this manner mirrors the adolescent process of posting to social media, but with more intentionality” (87).

Blogging and posting content is not simply fueled with the simple purpose of leaving a digital footprint. The conversation revolves around what kind of footprint one hopes to leave (92) and how a social network perceives the person posting content.

What now motivates an adolescent to express themselves through writing is different than how it traditionally was. Digital media is an endless, free platform accessible to all.

Returning back to the question, ‘how do adolescents tell stories through their diary writing?’ adolescents seek validation from their peers. Adolescents use the digital space to promote their inner thoughts in a composed way because the irrationality that emotion may suggest within a traditional diary is not as accepted in a digital space. In a sense, their self-expression is less raw and honest.

Awkward. on MTV: Season 1 Episode 1

Found on GoldDerby

The pilot of the television show “Awkward.” on MTV portrays the young protagonist, Jenna, writing about her life experiences, inner thoughts and emotions on her blog.

The audience witnesses two significant moments in Jenna’s life through her writing on her online diary or blog. At this point in time, Jenna’s blog content is private. Jenna loses her virginity at summer camp and then receives an anonymous letter telling her,

“‘As you are now, you could disappear and no one would notice - A friend. Below is a list of suggestions you should take into consideration. Number 1. Stop being such a p*ssy.’”

After Jenna read this, she wrote in her blog,

“Whoever wrote this letter didn’t pull any punches. But it was the truth. And the truth hurt… Sometimes being a teenager makes you want to die” (5:44).

This episode aligns with the themes that influence adolescents to write in a diary. In Jenna's life, the loss of her virginity is a marker of growth and internal development. In some ways, it is a life milestone, yet she has no one to share the news with. She is stuck dealing with this internal change on her own, because she does not feel as if she can disclose this moment to anyone else. The loss of her virginity, paired with the receipt of this anonymous letter -- who, *spoiler alert* we later find out is sent from her own mother -- leads Jenna to feel overwhelmed and alone. She seeks solace in her online diary.

Similarly to Anne Frank, Jenna does not feel as if her voice is heard. In a scene where we hear the thoughts in her head as she experiences her inner struggle she thinks,

“My mother always knew when something was wrong... and promptly avoided the conversation” (3:30).

This feeling of loneliness drives Jenna to write on her blog. Additionally, one of Jenna’s closest friends, Tamara, speaks to her on the phone about her time in summer camp but Jenna does not disclose that she has lost her virginity because Tamara only seems to talk about herself. With two people in Jenna’s life who do not make themselves available to listen, Jenna looks to her diary to express herself instead.

It is notable that her mother, the adult, does not want to understand her daughter’s internal struggles. It is as if because she is a teenager that her problems are deemed as less important. This links to the threaded theme that adults are obstacles to verbal free expression. The online diary, thus presents itself as an attractive alternative for adolescents.

Shapiro, L. A., & Margolin, G. (2013). Growing Up Wired: Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Psychosocial Development. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 17 (1), 1-18.

This study analyzes the the way in which technology use has expanded among adolescents. Adolescents

“have an easier time self-disclosing in online versus face-to-face communication, which is a less threatening format in which adolescents can share more freely” (4).

This is an attractive aspect of Social Networking Sites (SNS). Self-disclosure is somewhat demanded on SNS, almost forcing adolescents who use it to decide how they would like to be perceived by others based on how others react to their content. The reactions of an individual’s audience provides them with social capital and ultimately impacts the information that is written and shared on these platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.

Adolescents may “alter or highlight different aspects of themselves” (10) when they are developing their identities on SNS. The somewhat disingenuous nature of adolescents gearing their posted content to appeal to their network of followers, shows the difference between traditional diary writing and modern day digitized expression.

Parkland Shooting: Twitter Movement lead by the survivors

With the idea in mind that social media content is less natural than traditional diary entries, social media provides adolescents with power; especially if they are able to identify the type of content that influences the public. It also provides them with an outlet to express themselves when they experience any kind of influential event or if they have thoughts, positive or negative.

Twitter, specifically, is a platform that encourages millions of people to engage with one another in real time through thoughts and hashtags, which are used to identify messages revolving around a unified topic.

On March 14, 2018, 14 students and 3 staff members were gunned down in Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School in Parkland, FL. While this was happening, students who were in hiding were able to film the chaos on their phones. As a result, the public was able to visualize some of the trauma that the students in school faced after the shooting occurred. Following this traumatic event, the high school Parkland survivors, became the faces and leaders in catalyzing a movement to promote gun reform. They did this, in part, by using their written words.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the survivors, “had no Twitter account before the shooting—11 days later, she had more followers than the NRA,” according to TIME Magazine. Today, she has 1.56 million audience members who watch for the way the she expresses herself through words, retweets, memes and videos. The survivors “called for specific changes like a renewed assault-weapons ban, universal background checks and digitized gun—ownership records.” Emma and her peers identified the effect of social media as a personal outlet and a means for change.

Nikhita Nookala, a Parkland survivor, retweeted a cartoon sketch of herself with the words “‘Writing stories helped me get through this.’ She clearly states that she utilized writing and self-expression to cope with the trauma that she faced.

The March For Our Lives Twitter handle has 399 thousand followers and Twitter saw 3.3 million tweets with the #MarchForOurLives hashtag. A group of students used self-expression and the art of writing after a traumatic event to find comfort and spark change.

During this time, there were many adults who saw the Parkland survivors as just kids; not only undermining their intelligence and trauma, but their ability to effectively use their voices to express themselves and provoke a change in the United States. The Anne Frank Center tweeted a quote by Anne Frank validating the survivors and dismissing the idea that adults words and perspectives hold more validity and weight just because of their age.

Through their actions, the Parkland survivors combat the idea that adults are superior and maintain power in society due to their age. They use their voices as the strength that drives them to their ultimate success in creating a nationally recognized movement.