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Crafting a Personal Journaling Practice: Negotiating Ecosystems of Materials, Personal Context, and Community in Analog Journaling

Katherine Lin, Juna Kawai-Yue, Adira Sklar, Lucy Hecht, Sarah Sterman, Tiffany Tseng

TL;DR

This study investigates how analog journaling practices are crafted over time through a three-part ecosystem of Materials, Personal Context, and Community. It triangulates data from YouTube tool-setup videos, Instagram journaling spreads, and in-depth interviews with 11 journalers to characterize how material choices and social contexts shape journaling routines and identities. The authors identify design opportunities for future tools that accommodate changing practices, impose mindful constraints, and thoughtfully bridge analog and digital workflows. These insights aim to support sustained, authentic journaling that promotes well-being and personal development, while guiding tool designers in creating more ecologically-valid journaling ecosystems.

Abstract

Analog journaling has grown in popularity, with journaling on paper encompassing a range of motivations, styles, and practices including planning, habit-tracking, and reflecting. Journalers develop strong personal preferences around the tools they use, the ideas they capture, and the layout in which they represent their ideas and memories. Understanding how analog journaling practices are individually shaped and crafted over time is critical to supporting the varied benefits associated with journaling, including improved mental health and positive support for identity development. To understand this development, we qualitatively analyzed publicly-shared journaling content from YouTube and Instagram and interviewed 11 journalers. We report on our identification of the journaling ecosystem in which journaling practices are shaped by materials, personal context, and communities, sharing how this ecosystem plays a role in the practices and identities of journalers as they customize their journaling routine to best suit their personal goals. Using these insights, we discuss design opportunities for how future tools can better align with and reflect the rich affordances and practices of journaling on paper.

Crafting a Personal Journaling Practice: Negotiating Ecosystems of Materials, Personal Context, and Community in Analog Journaling

TL;DR

This study investigates how analog journaling practices are crafted over time through a three-part ecosystem of Materials, Personal Context, and Community. It triangulates data from YouTube tool-setup videos, Instagram journaling spreads, and in-depth interviews with 11 journalers to characterize how material choices and social contexts shape journaling routines and identities. The authors identify design opportunities for future tools that accommodate changing practices, impose mindful constraints, and thoughtfully bridge analog and digital workflows. These insights aim to support sustained, authentic journaling that promotes well-being and personal development, while guiding tool designers in creating more ecologically-valid journaling ecosystems.

Abstract

Analog journaling has grown in popularity, with journaling on paper encompassing a range of motivations, styles, and practices including planning, habit-tracking, and reflecting. Journalers develop strong personal preferences around the tools they use, the ideas they capture, and the layout in which they represent their ideas and memories. Understanding how analog journaling practices are individually shaped and crafted over time is critical to supporting the varied benefits associated with journaling, including improved mental health and positive support for identity development. To understand this development, we qualitatively analyzed publicly-shared journaling content from YouTube and Instagram and interviewed 11 journalers. We report on our identification of the journaling ecosystem in which journaling practices are shaped by materials, personal context, and communities, sharing how this ecosystem plays a role in the practices and identities of journalers as they customize their journaling routine to best suit their personal goals. Using these insights, we discuss design opportunities for how future tools can better align with and reflect the rich affordances and practices of journaling on paper.
Paper Structure (22 sections, 7 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 22 sections, 7 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Documentation Practices and Preferences
  4. Bridging Analog Documentation with Digital Affordances
  5. Methodology
  6. YouTube Videos on Journaling Tools
  7. Instagram Posts on Journaling Spreads
  8. Interviews on Journaling Practice
  9. Consolidation of Findings
  10. Analog Interview Participants
  11. Results
  12. The Journaling Ecosystem
  13. Materials
  14. Personal Context
  15. Community
  16. ...and 7 more sections

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: Screenshots of YouTube videos analyzed for writing tools and accessories (clockwise from top left: $@$hellysjournal, $@$leighpadme, $@$KaitlinGrey, $@$KaitlinGrey, $@$miicchaa, $@$onjerraslist, $@$JobsJournal, $@$ErinFlotoDesigns)
  • Figure 2: Images from Instagram journaling spread posts analyzed for layouts (clockwise from top left: $@$totoroscafe, $@$k4rasu._, $@$ellensjournals, $@$isuris_diary, $@$5am.raining, $@$noteswithlu)
  • Figure 3: Examples from our interview participants' physical journals (from left to right: Aaron, Beth, Alaina)
  • Figure 4: Journaling Ecosystem consisting of materials, personal context, and community.
  • Figure 5: Example spreads of space constraints within physical journals (left: Sophie, right: Beth)
  • ...and 2 more figures