On Print Or Pixel?

It’s a familiar scene in movies set back in the days when electricity didn’t yet power every home for miles around. Some prolific, revolutionary writer, hunched over his battered wooden desk, dipping his quill every so often in the ink that would sometimes splatter on his words, his endeavors lit only by a dim, fading candlelight. Nowadays, a different scenario would present itself, with nonetheless the same intent. The heroic author would now have a pasty sheen to his skin from a lack of exposure to the sun, his eyes red-rimmed as he struggles to pry them open as he forcefully sits with his back rim rod straight, lost in the hypnotizing glow of the computer monitor. Now, the transition doesn’t only happen when it concerns matters of global importance either. Who used to be a naïve, idealistic young girl who previously confided into her leather bound notebook, complete with a lock and key, may now be the proud owner of her very own domain name, a website marked as hers by a sprinkling of glittery, graphic hearts and an alias with one too many numbers.

Indeed, the internet came with more than we ever dreamed of, beyond a research library at one’s disposal with a few taps on a plastic board with labeled buttons. Young and old alike now have access to billions of websites that cater to everything from educational material, games, music, art, technicalities, and yes, even blogging, a newer version of the old, faithful ‘Dear Diary.’ Though, some people still hold onto the traditional pen and paper they cannot deny that its modern counterpart is an improvement, in more ways than one.

The very objective of the deed has not been changed by technology, though. As it had been with the old form, blogs are still and also used to recount events, to release emotions, and to express ideas. But this is where their similarities end? It’s certainly false that some things that are present with private journals are not available with blogs. If anything, it’s the other way around.

The first striking contrast between the two deals with the issue of privacy. Journals are quiet, secretive, akin to the shy new girl in school, while blogs are open to the public, quite loud and very much broadcasted, like the confident, obnoxious goof-ball on campus that everyone just loves to hate. Where journals are solely for the author’s eyes, blogs announce to the world what he or she is up to, every step, breathe, and whatever else bodily action. Critics say that this defeats the purpose of having a diary, which is supposedly a place to contain all those deep and dark entreaties. But they fail to mention, or perhaps just blatantly ignore the fact that blogs can have a ‘hidden’ or private feature, if one’s motives are merely to spill some ill-begotten feelings, or if one’s not yet ready to be quite so open about personal information. And what’s so great about letting the internet community know what you’re up to, anyway? they would often ask in addition. Well, perhaps these people are hypocritical, because everyone, in some sense, are egotistical and cling onto some tiny hope, no matter how far-fetched or desperate, that the universe revolves around them. In addition to hanging onto the idea that someone out there actually cares about them, there is also the notion that whoever that someone is can also comment on the blogs. So, not only is it an efficient way of communicating to others, but also of them responding back. One can arrange a get-together and find out who is available based on the replies, or ask for help or advice to problems and just have someone to share things with, even if meetings in real life are presently impossible. The comment box is a simple and perhaps underrated tool, but it is one of the things that make blogs so enjoyable and worthwhile.

Another argument raised in favor of journals regards expression and creativity. Which medium accommodates it better? Surely, one can stick post it notes all over the pages, write each sentence with a different pen color, or draw and doodle to a heart’s content with a journal, but artistic leanings can also be satisfied by a few clicks and clever uses of HTML with blogs. The same effects, or not, they would remark. It’s not the same as the anger or frustration or fury evident through shaken handwriting, or the tears blotting if the entry was made during a good cry. Granted, but if the words are truly all that’s important, and if the emotion is strong enough, it would speak through the pixilated text, even without the theatrics. The expression, they say with disdain, is also hindered, since any form of ranting is withheld when a lot of people are privy to reading it. But then again, there is that ever-present private option, but if one really wants to, one can intertwine the two and concoct mysterious, subtler statements in the stead of mad and hurried raves. Either of them will produce the same therapeutic effect anyway.

Now, there is also the matter of keeping them away when one is done with them. Storage, the term is called. When diaries get filled up, they get replaced by fresh, clean notebooks and kept away in a box in the attic, along with other long-forgotten tomes. So if, say, the house is doused in flames or floods, all those years’ worth of memories will be reduced to either ashes or something not unlike wet tissue paper. On the other hand, blogs may be archived, sorted by month, year, or category, totally secure. The only threats are psychotic hackers getting into one’s account for the sole purpose of deleting all of one’s entries, while, perhaps, laughing maniacally in their respective evil lairs, or if the host website crashes. In which case, there is the choice of saving all entries in different websites. It’s easy and foolproof, and if ever one feels like reading about such thoughts and mannerisms when one was younger, they can all be conjured with a handful of search words that doesn’t involve the hassle of having to go through yellowed and dog-eared pages of old-fashioned diaries, developing allergies due to the dust while having to decipher our very own handwriting.

So, even though people assume that blogging and journaling privately differ only because one is made on tangible papers while the other on digital sheets, blogging certainly has an advantage in matters such as privacy, creativity, and the storage of previous entries. It also seems that the same people who are highly against, or perhaps have acquired irrational phobias to the advancement of technology, are the same ones who refuse to accept blogging as the new modern way of jotting down thoughts. They cannot even contemplate that humanity can only move forward from its current position, that change is inevitable, that the only reasonable choice is to embrace the new millennium, with all the good and bad things it brings, or get trapped in the past, folded between the pages of those old diaries.