And does not belong to the journal

In July 2023, I deleted the application for a daily diary from my phone and laptop. Perhaps it was the best thing I did as a lifelong diary.

The decision was asked by Apple by announcing the WWDC diary application this year. In this speech, Apple said that he would utilize “machine learning on the device” to provide poems based on iPhone-such things such as contacts, photos, music, training, podcasts and location data. Ick gave me the idea. Mainly because the application was described as a riff in the function of memories in the photo application, which at that time “intelligently” repeated a photo of my mother’s open coffin.

I had flashbacks until this point last week, when I saw the Demonstration version of Google about his up-to-date Journal App. With the exception of the Google Journal application, it is based more on artificial intelligence than the Apple version ever. In addition to hints on the AI ​​powered journal, artificial intelligence on the device will also provide summaries of your entries. There is also a tiny view on the calendar, which is assigned by a tiny emoji meaning mood based on what you spent that day.

During my version, the Demo Google told me that the idea was to make a journal easier – A lot in the way Gemini simplifies other writing tasks, such as E -Maile and summaries of documents. Sometimes, I was told, it may be challenging to know what you should do. Looking back can also be challenging. In this case, Gemini was making life a bit more convenient and helpful.

It’s nice, except that journalism should not be uncomplicated or convenient.

Ask any writer: the empty page is to be struggled. And in the diary, the only monitor you ever need is “what happened today and how do I feel about it?”

This is a deceptively plain question. On some days it is completely obvious, which you should write about. A great tragedy, a jovial opportunity, the event you have been waiting for – everything that evokes powerful emotions is obvious brisk. But most days do not happen at all, forcing you to screen for a mundane minute to find something that is worth recording. That’s it. Sharing your discernment, brain exercise, breaking vocabulary to find the right expression to express your inner world. These are not things that should be uncomplicated.

There is one quote in the book Four thousand weeks: time management for mortals It sums up for me. “The thought really counts, but the effort – that is, inconveniences. When you make a more convenient process, you exhaust him about its importance.”

I do not always agree with the author Oliver Burkeman on this subject. I do not think that I was rolling over manual washing and I am an forever grateful inventor of the dishwasher. But because it applies to the endless Huge Tech’s pursuit to simplify writing with AI, I completely agree that fight What makes this process worth.

Reminds me of a significantly justified advertisement Google Gemini, in which my father uses artificial intelligence to write perfect A letter of fans to the Olympic Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and ends with Milquetoast Slop. There, Google also forgot that the effort of writing a letter, exposing himself there, makes the letters of fans original and significant.

I have found that it is worth making journalization as “uncomfortable” as possible. After removing the first day I returned to writing in a physical diary, which significantly improved my mental health, critical thinking, time management and memory. Many studies I showed that handwriting is better to stop memory and learn compared to writing. There is a lot of it Because It’s uncomfortable. Your hand cramps faster when writing a pen, ink is challenging to erase, and in my case my brain believes that my hand can move. These restrictions force me to establish priorities, what information should be registered and in a more purposeful way to sit with my thoughts. I mean, when I want to look back, I have to remember When Things happened because there is no search bar. With the exception of reasons for availability (in this case, voice recorders can be a good alternative), I would arguing that everyone interested in journaling should go analog.

Analog also gives privacy. Journaling often does not apply to tiny things in life. Division of breakdown, death, fears, ennui and the practice of finding joy in a finished, cruel and unfair life. These are private things for anyone but a writer. It does not matter that Google claims that the magazine application is fully on the device, blocked and removes not connected to the internet never seems yours.

Summary AI with the relevant take -out entries to the journal is also essentially defective. You are supposed To browse entries by browsing dispersed sentences for self -centers. You should remember the person you once have been and think about who you are now. It is supposed to be like finding a message in a bottle or a bill for 20 USD in an venerable coat pocket. I doubt whether reading the summary of the entry in the journal could ever give me the same feeling.

While writing this, I was still thinking about the summer of 2009. Fresh after my first real broken heart, I filled the entire paper diary with image -image pages, spotted ink and frightening Poetry, which even the most emo tumblr girl never admits to writing. When I couldn’t sleep or eat, I broke out the album Adele 21 And write every intelligent, hating, rejecting, longing, anger, betrayal and regret, which not everyone loves, could last forever.

Six months after filling out all this book, I sat down to read each page. It was the definition of Cringe, but the hourly process meant that I finally saw how I lost myself in a relationship that led my course. It helped me forgive me and go on. When I finished, I burned a book with an venerable cigarette lighter on the roof of my up-to-date, shit apartment. Looking at how the pages change orange and then black, I never felt free in my teenage life. Removing the AI ​​Journal application will never be so catartic.