Online Journals: A New Genre?
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I'm sure many of us can remember the days of 'secret diaries' that were guarded by lock and key, and for those of us who were lucky enough, by personal voice recognition, but this kind of self expression has changed forms significantly since our childhoods. Yes, we still know of journals and diaries, anonymous or not, but they have taken on a new form as an online submission. We now have the option of reading other people's blogs, posts, journals and diaries on the screens of our technology. But does this kind of change create a whole new genre? As stated by Laurie McNeill (2009), "Although the blog had the potential to become a new kind of genre, it is an adaptation of diary form, using tools on the web." So, it can be said that these online submissions, such as blogs, are just the most recent transformation and update of the hand-written diaries and journals that many of us are familiar with. I recently read a blog about how to transform your written day to day journals into a safe online form, and it offered several suggestions, from keeping an anonymous private blog, to downloading specific apps on your phone that serve as online journals. So it seems as though the evolution from the genre of diaries, has taken a much larger step into the online world than originally expected.
"Genres are socially based." (Van Luyn, 2013). I believe my chosen social network, Facebook, falls under this same genre. All of the 'status updates' you see on your news feed are contributing to the online journal of the relative author. If one is to scroll down their personal Facebook timeline, the visible posts are each a piece of their updated online diary. While you may not choose to share the same amount of information with your Facebook friends, as you would in your own personal journal, the same concept of online evolution from hand-written journals is still there. Not so much on Facebook, but the option is always there to share your stories anonymously in the online world, through anonymous blog posting, for example. Each post you make falls under the same genre as a hand-written journal, but simply takes on another visual form.
References
Henry, A. (2013). Life
Hacker. Retrieved 2013, from How Can I Keep a Personal, Private Journal
Online?:
http://lifehacker.com/5975750/how-can-i-keep-a-personal-private-journal-online
Luyn, A. V. (2013). Lecture 6 [Lecture Slides].
McNeill, L. (2009). Language and New Media: Linguistic,
Cultural, and Technological Evolutions [Chapter 12]. Hampton Press Inc.
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog. I agree with you when you say that Facebook falls under this same genre with the statues updates, which are a form of genre. I agree with McNeill (2011), when he mentions that the diary genre has a 'combination of newness and tradition when it comes to the internet. This is because diaries where only meant for the eyes of the diarist’s and where not meant to be shared. This comes into the point you made about each person can choose what they put up and not tell their 'deepest, darkest secrets', therefore there is a sense of tradition. However the ‘newness’ comes into play when these journals are posted online.