I started blogging, like many people, to record the details of my life, and to be able to reflect on things as they occurred to me. Blogging is like meditation -- by being present in the moment and reflecting on it, we hope to gain some insight or knowledge from it (or at least I do).
But after a couple years of recording my days somewhat regularly, I sometimes go back and re-read passages and have almost no recollection of the events or feelings I am describing. This is to be expected, I guess. If I didn't write these fleeting momentary thoughts down they would be completely forgotten almost as soon as I had them. Generally, what I'm capturing are temporal states of mind that aren't meant to last.
However, I think blogging is also screwing with my long-term memory.
Either that or I'm just getting old and senile. I used to have a great memory. I'd remember details, at least around big events (weddings, births, birthdays, first day of school, Sept. 11th. etc) that many people couldn't. Now, I can't even remember that stuff -- unless I've recorded it in my blog, that is.
What I'm wondering is, by writing details down and then mentally releasing them, am I losing the ability to keep these details in my memory?
I'll give you an example: Last year, for my son's birthday, I hosted a party at a playgym and then had folks back to my house for Texas Hold 'Em -- the day BEFORE the Open House for our old place. That these two things occurred side-by-side were very stressful for me, and yet, if I hadn't read it in my blog, I wouldn't have really remembered much about the party or the Open House or that I was crazy enough to schedule them so close together.
Is my poor memory just a natural result of aging or a side-effect of blogging? Am I trying to record too much detail -- maybe much more than my brain can even handle? Has anyone else observed this blogging brain memory fog or is this specific to me?
I am aware that perhaps my memory was never as good as I thought (holding on to only small key events and details) and I simply wasn't aware of that until I started methodically recording the minutia of my life.
first, my memory has been selective for quite a long time...I'm okay with that since most of the stuff I ejected was shit. and more recently I at times can't remember why I enter a room. but, as for the stressful event thing I think it is simply that...we get rid of the stuff that is too much, blogged or not. And the fact that you do blog about such events is a testimony to your dedication or perhaps self-abusive nature.
Posted by: Li | Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 08:07 PM
That reminds me of the people say that you lose part of your brain "with the placenta" when you give birth... does it ever come back???
;)
Posted by: Erika | Sunday, February 26, 2006 at 07:03 AM