The lost art of journals

I've been thinking lately about this blogging business and how I should use it. It seems that everyone has a blog and I felt like I should also as a writer and a person who is working at her current job as a social networking/ new media "expert". I also was yearning for a chance to write since I wasn't able to find a job at a magazine or newspaper and if you're a writer you know you have the feeling to express yourself in written words, whether they are beautiful, ugly, or like mine... merely simple. The problem I've found with this forum is my inability to approach the computer and type out what I thought. I do have a point even though this may not seem like it is making sense.

I've always kept some sort of a journal. Whether is be just random bits of poetry, angry lashings, writing down the day-to-day occurences, I've always loved going to a piece of paper to write things down. I've tried numerous times to start a journal on my computer but soon fell away from it.

What is the point of writing down your passionate feelings at that moment in time if you can spell check the damn thing?

I loved the feeling of going through an old box and finding a small notebook filled with the naive, but heartfelt thoughts of a young girl and re-reading over all the things in life that were so important to me then. Or, when I would have a sleepless night and go to my journal with hateful and sad thoughts on a breakup. I would inevitably find the entries where this boy was the most wonderful person in my life, and feeling angry I would tear apart the words I had written and throw them away. On this blog forum I could no less write those hateful words, seeing them form with each touch of the keyboard, nor would the feeling of pressing the delete key provide as much satisfaction.

I'm not saying I don't love the blogging idea. Of sharing with others your ideas and connecting with others you would have never otherwise. I just wonder if by people using the blog form as their 'journal', we are just creating another generation of writers who censor their thoughts and emotions for the sake of the web.

I love reading the journals of great writers, where you can see them forming their ideas, their style, and their real lives are shown. 50 years from now are we going to be reading the past blogs of writers? Maybe its a romantic idea in an age where everything and everyone is digital. But I love finding a favorite book and as I flip thorugh the pages, a love note from a high school boyfriend or a movie stub falls out and I remeber the time period I first fell in love with the boyfriend and the book. I can't even imagine reading Wuthering Heights on a kindle (I think that is what it is called). There are some things that I feel are being lost in this digital world and I'm not sure I'm ready to let go.