Journals for writing in the social age

Surely by now you have dozens of tenuous friends on Facebook and
Twitter, each from different spheres of your personal life, each a
token of some relationship or event. If you're a master of privacy
settings you can still say everything that comes to mind (right?), but
more than likely you tend to censor yourself, perhaps unconsciously.

Journals are for pure writing, a place to let every node in your social
network except yours fade to black.

You don't have to give up on technology to keep one, either. A lot of
people are pouring words into their mobile devices. For me, the iPad
is the perfect form factor, but a lot of people work increasingly from
their phones.

I recently read an article in USA Today about the enduring power of a
personal journal.

The CEO of Toms Shoes has a great quote in Inc about his morning routine

I live on a boat in Marina del Rey. When I wake up on the boat, it's
very relaxed. I usually get up at 8:30, have a Clif Bar for breakfast,
and spend a few hours thinking and writing before going in to the
office. Almost every morning I write in my journal. I've been keeping
it for a long time -- I've filled more than 50 books. I write about
what's going on in my personal and spiritual life or what's going on
at work. It helps me keep things in perspective, especially when
things get crazy or I get stressed or we have obstacles. When I go
back a month later and read what I was feeling, I realize that it
wasn't that big of a deal -- we got through it. And that helps me
prepare for the next time that I deal with difficult stuff.

There are many ways to benefit from writing a journal.  If you're not doing it, you should try.  Pick something you're comfortable with; a hardbound notebook, an online site, some files on your computer, or an iPad app.