I am a big journal writer. I have been hand-writing (at
least trying to) every day since I was in fifth grade. When I was reading
Socrates's notion of writing, that it is just a copy of a copy, I thought about
my journal writing, and how that it is just a “copy of a copy.” Maybe not a
copy of another piece of writing, but a copy of a previous experience that I
had. When recalling events, we tend to change what actually happened.
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| How do other people see us? |
I honestly cannot say that I have had an experience where writing
was a real problem, and that caused drastic consequences, but I have
had seen something in my personal journal writing that I plan to change because
it may cause a problem in the future. In class, Dr. Burton told us about how a
student read something he wrote, which created a false persona of him (Dr.
Burton). I noticed that in my journal writing, I twist some things with the
mindset of the people in the future (posterity, whoever) who will read it—I
wouldn’t have given the full story, or would change it to make it a little more
interesting, or to create a false persona of myself for the people who would someday read
it. For example, on days that I would be annoyed with something, I would
mention what was annoying me, but I wouldn’t express my annoyance as to make my readers think that I am not a negative person. This would make them think
that I am all-around a positive thinker, which is not true (we all are negative
at times). I am still trying to write truthfully.
I think what we write tells a lot about us, and if we
sugar-coat what we write about ourselves or others, it would create a false
impression in our audience.
I do that too! Although, I do it in speech as well. My Grandpa used to say that he thought everyone should--it would make life much more enjoyable. I tend to agree with him when listening to certain stories.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, i find myself doing the opposite: I'm much more likely to write in my journal if I have a lot of negative things to say that I can't say to anyone else, so I often find myself gingerly picking up my journal between forefinger and thumb to keep the negativity-soaked pages from infecting my day haha. I suppose I should keep my audience more in mind?
ReplyDeleteWow, Amanda, I admire your candor. You've caused me to think back to my writings (even my most recent blog post) and reconsider whether I should claim victimization as often as I do!
ReplyDeleteThe unfortunate thing is, almost everything we read (even some news articles and scientific studies) will hold bias. I guess we all need to be mindful of our own and others' to reach for any sort of objectivity.