5 Reasons Why I’ll Never Use A Journaling App (And You Shouldn’t Either)
Maybe I’m old-fashioned and out of touch. Maybe I’m a pretentious literary snob because I do love those overpriced leather notebooks and impractical fountain pens.
And maybe that latest journaling app does convert voice to text and tracks your daily moods and correlates them to your local weather.
But you know what? I’ll never use a journaling app anyways.
And I’ll never switch to an online journal no matter how many AI-tailored writing prompts it throws at me.
I’ve been journaling for nearly four decades and my journal has been my constant companion through it all.
My journal watched over my teenage ballet school insecurities, my trans-Atlantic breakups and my journalism career dramas.
And while I’ve switched from CDs to Spotify, and from MySpace to TikTok, I’ve never updated my trusty old journal.
Whether it’s a 5-subject college ruled spiral notebook from the supermarket, or a hand-bound leather notebook from a Cairo stationer, it doesn’t really matter.
As long as it’s paper.
As long as it’s something I can hold.
And over the years, as the Internet and social media have swallowed bigger and bigger chunks of our waking hours, I’ve realized a real-life paper journal is more important than ever.
A paper journal isn’t just about aesthetics.
It offers countless benefits that an online app could never match.
So if you’ve been looking for the best journaling app, then this is your sign to hit pause. Close all your windows and listen to my advice based on decades of writing:
Stick to paper.
Here are all the reasons I’ll never use a journaling app – and why you shouldn’t either.
1. A paper journal takes more time.
I don’t want to talk into a device while I’m stuck in traffic. I don’t want to type into a phone while I’m on the subway to a meeting.
I want my journaling to take time. I want my hand to cramp while I struggle to form halfway legible letters (because who needs biometric encryptions when nobody can read your handwriting anyways?)
I want my journaling to slow me down. I don’t want it to be quick and easy.
I want my journaling to help me actively process my thoughts – not just dump them verbatim onto a plastic screen.
I want my journal to offer a much-needed breather on a manic Monday packed with errands.
Because writing by hand forces you to slow down and fish out those deep insights from your stream of incessant thoughts. You’re not just pounding at the keyboard to meet an online word count.
2. I don’t need more screens in my life.
I’m already listening to music, browsing Ancient Egypt documentaries and writing to family on plastic screens.
And these days, it’s easy to feel like daily life is just going from your work (computer screen) to your home (TV and smartphone screen) with a bit of real life sprinkled in.
I want a more analog life that doesn’t revolve around pixels in their various formats. I want to experience life through my senses – and not just through my fingertips.
I want paper I can flip through, ink I can spill and margins I can doodle in.
I want to create something that doesn’t live on a SIM card.
3. I want pretty photos for my Pinterest.
There’s a beauty, mystery and romance to the art of writing.
Picture a long-haired Lord Byron composing poetry under a weeping willow. Or Joan Didion posed with a cigarette in her book-lined office.
Now picture Byron or Didion hunched over their smartphones. Not quite as appealing, is it?
And maybe it’s frivolous to give such importance to aesthetics.
After all: does it really matter if your journal is a plastic screen… as long as it gets the work done?
But beauty holds a hugely underrated importance in our daily lives.
Beauty triggers the release of dopamine, lifts our mood and transforms mundane tasks into transformative rituals.
So splurge on that colored leather notebook and those soy scented candles. Journal in the garden and press fallen rose petals into your pages.
It’s very important.
4. I want to reap the benefits of writing by hand.
Whoever is marketing the latest journaling app has tons of research, case studies and anecdotal evidence to gloss over.
Of course they can market their award-winning design and the sheer convenience of their journaling app.
But you’ll never hear them say online journaling has more benefits than journaling on paper.
Because that’s just not true.
So the question is: do you want award-winning design and convenience? Or do you want to lower your stress by working longhand through your triggers?
Here are all the benefits of writing by hand (over typing):
- boosts creativity
- improves your memory
- relieves depression and anxiety
- improves learning comprehension
- helps critical thinking
- slows down mental aging
- and more
I’m not giving all that up for the ability to add my GPS location to my journal entries.
5. I’m not an optimized productivity machine.
I’m a human being.
Sometimes I just want to wallow in rumination and write about the same problem in circles without finding a real actionable solution.
Because I enjoy the journey and my imperfections make me human.
But don’t get me wrong.
I do want to journal to lower my stress, anxiety and depression. I do want to journal to lower my risk of Alzheimer’s and boost my creativity.
But I also want to relax in the backyard with a glass of pinot grigio and write a poorly-plotted short story about the elderly woman I met in the park this morning.
I can use my journal as a self-improvement tool – and I can use my journal to just be me.
Read next:
16 Powerful Journaling Tips For Beginners (To Start Writing)
Can’t Stick To Journaling? Try These 4 Simple Hacks
15 Things To Do In The Morning (Instead Of Scrolling)
Reclaim your life from the digital noise.
Join my one-day Analog Workshop to get practical resources and interactive sessions to help you close the screen, defeat distraction and design an intentional life.
