This is kind of dystopian. Image: Google<\/p>\n I had flashbacks to that moment last week when I saw a demo of Google\u2019s take on its new Journal<\/a> app. Except Google\u2019s Journal app leans harder into AI than Apple\u2019s version ever has. In addition to AI-powered journaling prompts, the on-device AI will also provide summaries of your entries. There\u2019s also a little calendar view that assigns a little emoji signifying your mood based on whatever you journaled that day.<\/p>\n At my demo, Google told me the idea was to make journaling easier \u2014 much in the way that Gemini simplifies other writing tasks, like emails and document summaries. Sometimes, I was told, it can be hard to know what you should journal about. Looking back can also be difficult. The point of Gemini in this instance was to make life a little more convenient and helpful.<\/p>\n That\u2019s nice, except journaling isn\u2019t supposed to be easy or convenient.<\/p>\n Ask any writer: a blank page is meant to be wrestled with. And in journaling, the only prompt you ever need is \u201cWhat happened today and how do I feel about that?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a deceptively simple question. Some days, it\u2019s abundantly obvious what you should write about. A great tragedy, a joyous occasion, an event you\u2019ve been looking forward to \u2014 anything that sparks a strong emotion is an obvious prompt. But most days pass without much happening at all, forcing you to sift through mundane minutiae to find anything worth recording. That\u2019s the point. Honing your discernment, exercising your brain, wracking your vocabulary to find the right phrase to express your inner world. These are not things that are supposed to be easy.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one quote in the book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals that sums it up for me. \u201cIt isn\u2019t really the thought that counts, but the effort \u2014 which is to say, the inconvenience. When you render the process more convenient, you drain it of its meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t always agree with author Oliver Burkeman about this. I find no meaning in toiling over hand-washing dishes, and am eternally grateful to the inventor of the dishwasher. But as it pertains to Big Tech\u2019s never-ending quest to simplify writing with AI, I wholly agree that the struggle is what makes the process worth anything.<\/p>\n Limitations force me to prioritize what information needs to be recorded and sit with my thoughts<\/p>\n It reminds me of Google\u2019s much-decried Gemini ad<\/a> in which a father uses the AI to write the perfect fan letter to Olympian Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and ends up with milquetoast slop devoid of heart. There, too, Google seemed to forget that the effort of writing the letter, of putting yourself out there, is what makes fan letters authentic and meaningful.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve found that it pays to make journaling as \u201cinconvenient\u201d as possible. After I deleted Day One, I returned to writing in a physical journal, and that dramatically improved my mental health, critical thinking, time management, and memory. Multiple<\/a> studies<\/a> have shown that handwriting is better for memory retention and learning compared to typing. A lot of that is because it\u2019s inconvenient. Your hand cramps faster when writing with a pen, ink is hard to erase, and in my case, my brain thinks faster than my hand can move. Those limitations force me to prioritize what information needs to be recorded and sit with my thoughts in a more intentional way. It means when I want to look back, I have to remember when things happened precisely because there\u2019s no search bar. Barring accessibility reasons (in which case, voice recorders may be a good alternative), I\u2019d argue that anyone interested in journaling ought to go analog.<\/p>\n What a meaningful AI-generated reflection. Image: Google<\/p>\n Going analog also affords you privacy. Journaling is often not about the little things in life. (Though no one\u2019s stopping you from writing an ode to that one life-changing bubble tea you had with lunch.) Many people journal to grapple with Big Feelings. Breakups, deaths, anxieties, ennui, and the practice of finding joy in a life that is finite, cruel, and unfair. These are private things meant for no one\u2019s eyes except the writer. It doesn\u2019t matter that Google says the Journal app is fully on-device, lockable, and deletable \u2014 nothing connected to the internet ever feels truly yours.<\/p>\n An AI summary with pertinent takeaways of your journal entries is also fundamentally flawed. You\u2019re supposed to flip through entries, sifting through scatterbrained sentences for nuggets of meaning. You\u2019re supposed to remember the person you\u2019d once been and reflect on who you are now. It\u2019s meant to be like finding a message in a bottle, or a $20 bill in an old coat pocket. I doubt reading an AI summary of a journal entry could ever give me the same feeling.<\/p>\n While writing this, I kept thinking back to summer 2009. Fresh after my first real heartbreak, I filled an entire paper journal with tear-stained pages, blotchy ink, and horrendous poetry that even the most emo Tumblr girl would never admit to writing. When I couldn\u2019t sleep or eat, I\u2019d blast Adele\u2019s album 21 and write every bit of self-doubt, loathing, rejection, longing, anger, betrayal, and grief that not all loves could last forever.<\/p>\n Six months after I filled that entire book, I sat down to read every single page. It was the definition of cringe, but the hourslong process made me finally see how I\u2019d lost myself in a relationship that had run its course. It helped me forgive and move on. When I was done, I burned the book with an old cigarette lighter on my shitty new apartment\u2019s roof. Watching the pages turn orange then black, I\u2019d never felt freer in my young life. Deleting an AI journal app will never feel quite as cathartic.<\/p>\n 63 Comments<\/a>Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Victoria SongClose Senior Reviewer, Wearable Tech<\/p>\n Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All by Victoria Song<\/a><\/p>\n AICloseAI<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All AI<\/a><\/p>\n AnalysisCloseAnalysis<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Analysis<\/a><\/p>\n ColumnCloseColumn<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Column<\/a><\/p>\n GoogleCloseGoogle<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Google<\/a><\/p>\n Google PixelCloseGoogle Pixel<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Google Pixel<\/a><\/p>\n ReportCloseReport<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n![\"Render](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Screenshot-2025-08-22-at-2.36.24\u202fPM.png\"\/)
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Victoria Song<\/p>\n