Byte your thoughts

From journaling to biopics.

What could be more noble than writing down your thoughts in a personal journal? This practice, as old as time itself, dates back to antiquity, when Mesopotamian and Egyptian scribes carved their reflections into clay tablets.

Today, this tradition is experiencing a remarkable resurgence. On TikTok, the hashtag #Journaling has amassed nearly 1.2 million posts, often highlighting the virtues of handwritten versions. Some videos, like one that shows how to create a journal using coffee-stained paper (a process that adds a vintage aesthetic and unique sensory touch), have garnered 1.5 million likes. The trend is also evident on Google, with over 135,000 searches in March 2024, a 50% increase in two years.

This trend has also transitioned into the digital realm with the rise of apps like Day One, which has been downloaded over 15 million times. Automattic, the owner of WordPress and Tumblr (among others) and a pioneer in blogging platforms, saw an opportunity in this success and acquired it in 2021. More recently, they added text.com to their arsenal, a platform that helps brands optimize their customer service by analyzing, enriching, and automating textual communications.

But what is Automattic's ultimate goal? Of particular interest is their upcoming revamp of the WordPress model, which could potentially simplify the process of sharing personal thoughts directly from Day One.

However, their ambitions seem to be much broader. Although Automattic is firmly committed to protecting user privacy, it can still anonymize data to extract insights while upholding those commitments. This anonymization, combined with text.com's analytical and automation capabilities, could allow Automattic to capitalize on emerging trends and create a new generation of communication solutions based on a deep understanding of human emotions and behavior. Are we on the cusp of the era of affective computing? Delve into their offered job titles, like "Happiness Engineering," and you'll discern that human interactions and their emotional subtleties lie at the heart of their vision.

In any case, it's clear that personal and intimate content is becoming more prevalent on the web.

USV Ventures recently delved into this trend with the introduction of Overheard "OH at @USV," an initiative where an AI records and synthesizes company conversations to share them with the outside world.

While the content maintains a fairly neutral tone, this initiative evokes gleaned, almost confidential information reminiscent of diary excerpts, offering a glimpse into daily discussions and internal reflections.

On the other hand, Asana has gone a step further by infusing its product update notifications with a personal touch.

This transformation turns routine updates into introspective reflections, much like journal entries. By doing so, Asana adds a human warmth to its communications, elevating what could have been dry messages into deeply emotional dialogues.

One of the most striking examples, saved for last—or perhaps for the skeptics among us—is Apple's recent release of its native journaling app. This app transcends the role of a mere private space for personal reflection. By harnessing on-device data like location, activities, and photos, it offers a highly personalized journaling experience while upholding confidentiality through Apple's security architecture. This advanced data usage hints at Apple's future, particularly in augmented reality. By grasping the user's context and social interactions, the app lays the groundwork for more immersive augmented reality experiences

With devices like Apple Glasses in development, the app will be able to understand context in real time and adapt its interface to the user's environment. Imagine a combination of spatial computing, where digital objects seamlessly integrate into our physical world; the method of loci, which links information to memorable locations for improved recall; journaling, which helps capture and reflect on our experiences; and interactive engagement inspired by Pokémon Go. This journaling app is the first step towards enhanced augmented reality experiences, where the journal could become a smart, invaluable digital companion in everyday life.

Perhaps there's even more to this. As we enter the age of selfpressionism, we see this trend intersect with another: the revival of biopics, cinematic reflections of human lives. Google searches for biopics have surged by 49% over the past year, and Netflix now hosts more than 200 biopics on its platform. We're entering an era where anyone, empowered by the vast potential of generative AI, could become the protagonist of their own biopic, navigating between the pages of their digital journal and the emerging augmented realities. The big question remains: will it be shared with a few or broadcast for all to see?

MD