Is Facebook the New Form of Journal-Writing?

Two weeks ago, I attended (for free, yay) some master classes at a theatre school in Manhattan. One of the speakers was David Lindsay-Abaire, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who also did the screenplay for Rabbit Hole, which garnered Nicole Kidman and Oscar nomination a few years ago.

During the Q&A, one of the attendees asked David what role he thought journal-writing played in the creative writing process.

He thought about it for a moment and then announced that, for him, it didn’t play any role - his worry with journal-writing was that it would be too self-absorbed, and so would any creative writing that would grow out of it.

I thought about this quite a bit (so much so that I did a journal entry on it!) Journal writing, for me, has always been a big part of the creative writing process, not because any stories grow directly from it, but because it’s typically during journal writing that I stumble upon my best insights on life.

But I had to agree that there was something about David’s “self-absorbed” worry... and I can admit that I’ve written many a one-sided, upset journal entry in my day. (That’s what they’re good for, right? Getting all that angst out?)

But the plus side of a journal - to someone who takes it to that level, someone who’s honest with him or herself - is that after some venting, and some self-defending, it also gives you a space in which to write about where you may have gone wrong, things that are nagging you and making you feel guilty - and a space to brainstorm how to do better in the future.

In short, a chance to understand yourself - and, by extension, other people - better.

Everywhere I look nowadays, I see narcissism. Instead of being contained in private journals, though, it comes in the form of super-abbreviated tweets and Facebook status updates. (Not excluding my own posts.) These are the key ways in which people are keeping track of their emotions. And how deep into their emotions can they go in just a few sentences?

This is probably why people get the urge to post rambling, too-much-information updates. They need an outlet. But mostly they’ll just get a few friends reflecting their rage and indignation right back at them, justifying it - so there’s no chance of growth there and, though it might temporarily feel better, the problems still remain. 

I agree that when going into our lives and our issues, there’s a danger of being self-absorbed... But whether it’s through creative writing alone, or also journal writing, the act of writing itself offers an opportunity to explore ourselves on a deeper level, in a way that just talking with friends can’t always accomplish... and in a way that just a sentence or two - the fast food equivalent of writing - could never, ever hope to reach.