Should You Keep a Journal or a Blog?

Recently I read about someone fighting with her in-laws at her blog. She was also fighting with her husband too. Her husband had made a very large purchase without consulting her. She had been thinking about divorcing him and now she was finally thinking about doing it. She wasn't sure what to do.

It was clear to anyone reading her blog that she was journaling about this issue. But that she was journaling about it in a very public manner, on her blog. People were leaving her comments saying that she should leave him or that she should try to work it out for the sake of the children, or that maybe he made the large purchase in an effort to help the family and that she should try to understand. But was their input really helpful to her?

A journal can be a great tool for anyone, especially someone going through a stressful time. But a journal is a private thing, something that no one sees, perhaps you might show your therapist or perhaps a close, trusted friend or family member. But usually no one sees your journal. So when writing in your journal you have no feedback from others reading your daily journaling. You have no comments to listen to. Just your own thoughts.

Some might think that the comments other people left her were supportive. But in reality no one can know the entire situation from what someone writes at their blog. A comment telling someone to stick with a marriage based on a five hundred word blog comment could be entirely inappropriate. That being said, the blogger might still feel supported by the comments left by the people. Even if he or she was not following the suggested advice that they left, the blogger could still feel the support of those listening to their problems.

There are concerns about blogging about your personal issues. There have been countless circumstances where anonymous blogs have been discovered. We have seen quite a few media cases where people have lost their jobs because they have blogged about their jobs. Certainly blogging about your personal life and then being discovered must have its own after effects.

But a blog can be fun to keep. Blogging about your favorite hobby or pastime can be something fun to do. There have been some creative blogs - such as the MAKE blog which has all different types of inventions http://makezine.com/blog. Or The Julie/Julia project, where a thirty-year old secretary in New York cooked all of Julia Child's recipes in a year and blogged about it. She wound up writing a great book about her blog.

In my own opinion, blogging is great to do if you are blogging about something fun, something entertaining. But if you have a personal problem and are looking for input, you would probably be better talking to a good friend or family member or perhaps seeing a professional counselor. Keeping a journal can be a great way to think out something, but blogging is NOT journaling.