A Salesian religious sister who has a degree in media ecology and conducts retreats writes about the benefits of writing in her column in the Catholic Times. Many who have blogs use them as a diary: an open diary for all those connected to the Social Network Service. What is written for the viewing of others usually has more concern for the audience than for inner integrity of the person doing the writing. When this is repeated, she says, the danger is to have it intoxicate one.
The more a person uses Facebook and the SNS sites the less of an appreciation they have of their own self-worth. The sister reports a psychologist discovered this in his investigation. Many are looking for approval and praise from those with whom they are in contact. Another psychologist in his experiments found those who excessively make known information on their blog do not have a good feeling for their efforts. The friends they make on SNS are only virtual friends, and their real friends, with the overload of information, makes their relation with the blogger more difficult.
Moreover, using the SNS diary pages the intense feelings of elation one feels makes the gentle communications with family and friends unappreciated. SNS becomes a means of showing our pictures and writings and making our self known on an event page.
How about getting back, she says, to a paper diary that we have forgotten? Especially in the digital age going back to the pencil and paper diary has a lot of meaning. We put aside for a time the digital equipment and with pencil and paper concentrating on what we write, we become intimate with ourselves. Stress, outside noises, our business concerns are put to sleep, our emotions subside, and as we write in the diary our inattentiveness becomes regulated.
She remember the years during overseas study when she had to deal with a new language and culture; her diary writing helped her solve many of the difficulties she faced. She has never forgotten the help she received from the writing and the closeness she felt to God.
She concludes with the words of a novelist who said that when he picks up a pencil to write, the body is pushing the pencil. This feeling is very important to him, without this feeling he would not be able to write even one line. Wouldn't it be wonderful, she asks, if we all had this feeling when we pick up a pencil?
