Modern Diaries: A Study of the Role and Significance of Diaries in the Modern World

Introduction

In the past, the diary was used for various purposes such as documenting daily life events for oneself and also for family and community (Humphreys, 2018). They were shared with loved ones and friends. It is expected that the diary plays the same roles in the modern world. The following paper will focus on the central theme on the assigned reading and lessons from the reading and lastly develop questions to classmates concerning the readings.

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Diaries have today almost been replaced by technology such as social media. Social media is used to document everyday events such as travel and chronicling experiences. Traditionally diaries were shared with others. Today, people document and share their lives through social media. But the shared events are the same as traditionally documented through old media. Social media use is still new, and some significant populations have no access. As such, we need to understand aspects of social media since the ordinary may represent diverse social systems and values which influence human condition (Humphreys, 2018).

The central theme of the reading is that some social media just like diaries constitute media traces which is essential for media accounting. That is, they exhibit images, texts, and videos people create when documenting their lives. Media accounting, which implies media practices that facilitate documentation of life events, involves the consumption of media traces. Media accounting is a form in which people evaluate behavior, actions, events, and individual worth's as it entails the collection of media traces. Unlike diaries, social media accounting conveys more message about people as traces can be analyzed, studied, and examined to serve better, market and protect people better.

The main lessons from the reading are that diaries encouraged conformity to social standards and expectations just like social media accountability ties us to identity and is tied our roles and responsibilities as we are accountable for media traces over time(Humphreys, 2018). Media accountability means we are responsible for traces we create, for traces created by others about us and to others for their traces representing them. In the review of media accounting, the self-sense is created and can be considered as qualified self. Through the creation of traces in images, writing, videos, and audios, we are constructing a representation of ourselves which is readily available to be consumed (Humphreys, 2018). Consumption of media traces helps us understand others and ourselves. Qualified self-entails quality, qualify, and qualification (Humphreys, 2018). Quality implies that we depict our qualities and others when we engage in media accounting (Humphreys, 2018). The qualify context is achieved as the qualified self is a "characterized self" and convey a qualified version, who we are (Humphreys, 2018). Qualification is achieved as media traces are evidence of what one has accomplished and who we are (Humphreys, 2018). The self-notion is crucial to the qualified self as it implies an object and a subject. As subjects, we are creators of traces and through experiences; we are objects by observing ourselves in traces created by others or ourselves (Humphreys, 2018).

Further, media traces is a tool of several roles such as remembrance experiences and activities and reckoning which entails understanding ourselves as well as the environment around us by engaging with media traces (Humphreys, 2018).

Questions for Classmates

• In the rise of global concerns of privacy and security of data in the online world, can we argue that media traces are a misinterpretation of one-self since media accounts can be manipulated?
• Are diaries a more secure presentation of identities than social media where identity to a media account such as Facebook can be manipulated, meaning that the media traces are a misrepresentation of an individual?

References

Humphreys, L. (2018). The qualified self: Social media and the accounting of everyday life. MIT Press.