The Value of Internet Diaries

Zak's Take:

Saul Bellow starts The Dangling Man by writing: "There was a time when people were in the habit of addressing themselves frequently and felt no shame at making a record of their inward transactions. But to keep a journal nowadays is considered a kind of self-indulgence, a weakness, and in poor taste...To hell with that!...I intend to talk to myself - and I do not feel guilty of self-indulgence in the least!" For anyone who's ever kept a journal or considered themselves an avid follower of the age-old Socratic creed of "know thyself," this may seem like a statement of validation, an F-you to all those people who live their lives so mindlessly that, frankly, there's just nothing to write about. Well, let me break it you - it isn't. The only truth validated in this statement is that there exists a large group of pathetic, socially awkward loners who feel they improve their lives every time they shut their bedroom door, kick on some empty-bar-indie music and jot down all the reasons they feel isolated in a Hemingway mole skin journal. Sad isn't it? Well, if that's not depressing enough let me throw this at you - The Dangling Man ends with our diary-defending narrator getting drafted to fight in World War Two, eliciting this response: "Hurray for regular hours! And the supervision of the spirit! Long live regimentation!"

Think about that for a second...

Are you done? Imagine that - the one thing that lifts the narrator from his funk is getting drafted to go fight and most likely get his brains shot out or a limb blown off. But, at least he will no longer be alone. At least somebody else is calling the shots and it's no longer up to him to figure life out. Long live regimentation. So what does this all mean? What's the answer? Should the government set up some secret agency to round up all those depressed diary-writing-loners, throw some fatigues on them and toss them into the army? Fortunately - no. The answer is easier and less macabre than that. The answer is blogs.

Let me throw out a hypothetical for you. Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia? I'm not going to summarize the movie for you due to the risk of spending too much time on how annoying Meryl Streep's accent was (which could take up a full blog post). The bottom line is that the movie is not about cooking at all, it's not about some amazing connection forged between two women via French cooking - it's about blogging. Think about the movie but instead substitute the whole blogging aspect for a diary. What happens? How does the movie end? Let me help you. The movie ends with Amy Adams, after finally mastering the ever so difficult boeuf bourguignon, making one last diary entry - "I did it!" before running up to her rooftop for a triumphant celebration, probably with some Paula Cole sounding song playing in the background, and then hurling herself off the roof Thelma and Louise style. Why? Because she did it all alone, nobody knows or cares about her cooking every recipe in the Julia Child's book. There's no book deal, no New York Times article. Just a lonely woman cooking and writing in her diary. It's the blog that saves her. Weird right?

Not so much. The fact is that social networking DOES connect people in a meaningful way. And that's exactly why it was easy to convince my crotchety old bastard, intellectually self-righteous brother to write this blog with me. I disagree with my bro on his point that, "the value of voice has been depreciated and usurped by something else." Sure, Max is eloquent enough to spout off and maybe convince you that the internet and the social network is turning us into narcissistic, social retards (I almost fell victim to his argument) but here's where he's wrong. The social network is what gives us a voice. Writing in a diary or attempting to write a 'society-altering' novel is no longer as valuable as a blog or a twitter account. Why? Because our voices are out there for others to hear and connect with. We can wave that banner now and others can see it. Why does Julie and Julia end happily? The blog. The blog connects the character with others. She has fans. People give a shit because they have a forum to give a shit. The more you write in your diary (alone), the more socially isolated you become - the more of a narcissistic, social retard you become. Twitter accounts and blogs turn up the volume on what you have to say. It's a type of social therapy.

And what about cyber identities? Is the real world any more honest? Are those "scrawny nerds" walking around trying to convince the rest of us that they are, in fact, scrawny nerds and proud of it? Of course not. And what happens when they do? If there's ever a place where nerds celebrate their nerdiness it's the University of Chicago. But we do applaud that behavior? Hardly. I admit I liked to spot the guy on campus who proudly wore a cape and fedora but as soon as the moment passed I didn't give a second thought about him (I'm sure he wrote a killer blog though).

Blogs, Facebook updates and tweets are not only socially valuable, they're tremendously entertaining. Who doesn't believe that even a movie as serious as Braveheart wouldn't be improved if after a battle William Wallace tweeted, "philly-jack-smaking these Brits with my Scottish steel, party in MacClannough's tent tonight!" Now, I'm not saying that there aren't issues with the social network and that there aren't those people out there who refresh their twitter page every two seconds to see if Lady Ga-ga has tweeted what type of sandwich she's eating. What I'm saying is that I don't believe there's been an incremental decline in how our society operates. People have always cared about celebrities. People have always tried to shape their image in a way that's socially-pleasing to others.

What the social network provides is a voice to those diary-writers. Those who have always cared about exploring, questioning and writing now have a social forum to operate in; regimentation, in a different form.