I admit, I am a Millennial. As a child of the 80s, I can remember typing my first stories on our home computer and playing the first basic computer games without a mouse. I bought my first computer at age 14. I found a new independence in the confines of my childhood bedroom. From eighth grade through my early twenties, I kept a diary. For a time in my teenage years, my diary was supplemented by online journals. I could indirectly post my feelings in a virtual post on a website called LiveJournal. My friends could read and comment on my posts, creating a support system for each other when we didn’t want to ask for help. I made friends via my online journals and even started exchanging letters with a kid in England who asked to be penpals. LiveJournal allowed me to write more than I could fit into my AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) away message. I have always felt a sense of adversity to the word “blog”, perhaps because that was not a term I used in association with my online journals. Like the term “selfie” it is a word created after-the-fact and after the thing it describes has already been happening for some time. I took pictures of myself with my webcam or my digital camera and would describe them as they are: pictures. I just so happen to be the subject of said pictures.
Eventually, my online journals became neglected but I continued my written diary until my daily reflection was too painful to contemplate. With each month that passed, my emotional state worsened. I was working my first “real” job and my boss was a complete psychopath.