Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Power in Writing About Yourself

Introspective writing keeps people alive and well. A new tool makes it easy. Maybe too easy.
"This is not a replacement for people or human contact," said the designer Albert Lee of his new creation, an app called Emojiary. I wanted to believe him.
Every day you get a text from the Emojiary bot. It asks how you're doing. You write it back, texting out your most visceral feelings, and it accepts them without judgment. At least, none that I was able to sense.

This is all meant to conjure a daily moment of cathartic introspection, of candid self expression. The name is a portmanteau of emoji and diary. The concept is a portmanteau of loneliness and connection, or emotional illiteracy and anarchy. The bot encourages you to communicate in emojis, but you can also add words. Everything you say is logged on your iPhone, and the idea is that if you're diligent and reply every time it asks you what's up, eventually you have yourself a journal. You can look back at your responses, remembering the good things and feeling nostalgic, or remembering the bad and feeling resilient.
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