A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access (like, them reading your anti-government rants that may involve violence… that sort of stuff).
So… how to defend against both threats?
(Also, I just realized, paper journals cannot really be easily backed up…)
if you have legitimate concerns about the government coming after you, you simply do not keep a diary. At all. Not even one where you promise not to write anything incriminating.
I’m not sure if I have a legitimate concern. I have never attended a protest (too scared) and I never had any large online presence. I don’t even show my name or face on the internet. I don’t have any wikipedia pages.
So… maybe I’m just over-cautious… 🤷♂️
Starting your Wikipedia page now
I don’t have these legitimate concerns, and I STILL keep stuff like that as thoughts in my head. The only reason I’d journal my thoughts is if I eventually wanted someone to read them.
I keep my journaling for things I actually do in real life that I want to keep track of.
What is the purpose for writing it down? When you know that answer, then you look for the safest way to accomplish that purpose, which probably isn’t a diary.
I tried it for a while. Going back and reading it later just made me cringe so I stopped.
Some people just process these things better by forcing themselves to put them into words. Journals, for some people are not written to be read, but to be written.
I was like they in high school. Wrote out my thoughts. Lose-leaf paper in my binder with me other school stuff, so they didn’t survive more than a few months. But the writing was the point. No-one was ever going to read them, not even me.
Then simply write it in a text editor without saving it into a file, it’ll be lost after closing the program.