Personal Blog Vs. Journaling
So, what’s the difference between a personal blog and a journal?
Simple Explanation
Personal Blogs are public.
Journals are private.
Longer Explanation
Personal Blog
While personal blogs are a journal of a sort, they are public. This means that, whether you meant to or not, you’ve edited the content.
Logging your adventures, thoughts and observations publicly force you to reflect on your language and opinions. It makes you a bit more empathetic.
Let’s use an example – Erica is writing a blog post about the new guy, Dave, who is constantly using her organic, oat milk coffee cream without her permission. She has labeled the bottle clearly, and yet, he uses the cream.
Now, Erica might want to swear and make threats upon Dave’s person and collection of political action figures, but she pauses. She considers that perhaps Dave has a food allergy too. Maybe, Dave can’t afford his own non-dairy cream. Maybe, Dave is trying to get her attention.
She blogs that while it is aggravating that he takes her coffee cream, she needs to hear his side of the story before she makes any character judgments.
Journal
Journals are private. They are not checked for grammar. They will not get you likes, dislikes, or comments. They will give you the freedom to write your feelings no matter how petty or grand.
The pages of your journal can be as messy and complicated as you feel in the moment. You can share all of this with the notebook and not be judged.
Remember Erica writing the thoughtful blog post about Dave? Well, while that post is being edited and proofread, Erica’s journal is full of rage pages! She’s used colorful language and wished death by microwave to Dave’s action figures for pages before she even thought of considering Dave’s situation.
Her initial outrage had a place in her journal while her higher took time to consider Dave’s situation.
I Like Both
Keep a personal journal for the raw you. Keep a personal log for memories and thoughts that for sharing with other, stimulating conversation, and sharing memories.