Guest Post By Sam Lytle
But my career handwriting in journals like these is over. It ended a few years ago. It was a very personal experience, but I decided one day that if I could choose between not journaling at all and journaling with a less personal approach, I would opt for the latter. That is when I took my journal talents to the interwebs and haven’t looked back.
The discussion of whether classic or digital journaling is better would be an epic one and will not be decided here. It is not a brand new battle either. For several decades valiant journalers and diarists have taken to their keyboards instead of pens. The only point I will make is that the tides are changing and the pros of eJournaling are increasing with every new smartphone or tablet app, online journal or personalized software package. Never before has this newer method of journaling been more trustworthy, easy and enticing.
Still, hand-written journals rock and always will. I have stick figures of myself beating the daylights out of my brother surrounded by about three sentences describing the Ninja Turtles to prove it. And when my parents go, I will be conniving and sneaky if necessary to either get my hands on their original hand-written journals or pay a hefty price to make copies. They are very special.
But for every journaler, there will be a day when you ultimately decide if you will continue scrawling memories in ink or switch to a binary form. Maybe you have already made that decision, maybe not. But wherever you stand on this question, realize that it is a question of increasing importance and one that can be made only by you. I promise there is comfort in either choice. Time doesn’t stand still and the future will only make it easier to duplicate and digitize hand-written, classic journals and conversely it will only become more affordable to print out beautiful, typed journals to give to our grandchildren.
Some people will laugh that there are people that even care about decisions such as these. That’s okay, they aren’t reading this blog. I care, and that is why I am trying to do my part to use my limited expertise to make this decision easier for the world. I wish you the best of luck in all of your journaling and hope that you will feel free to ask me any questions about eJournaling either by email (sam@easyjournaling.com) or on Twitter @easyjournaling.
Sam Lytle is an iPhone app reviewer for AppAdvice.com and is the founder of the new EasyJournaling website. EasyJournaling is dedicated to help make journaling more practical in an ever busying world with an emphasis on smartphone and web journals and diaries.
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