My digital artefact is a blog dedicated to all things journaling, The Daily Journal. I developed this project because I wanted to produce something that was relevant to my life and relate to a specific community. After a bit of research on the topic, I found tremendous benefits to journaling which include; relieving stress, prevention of depression, improving memory functions, boosts immune system and overall an increased mental and physical wellbeing. I also found that journaling is a whole community of its own and everyone in the community likes to partake in self-care acts as well as share their different types of journals. I found that people who enjoy journaling also enjoy reading and sharing blogs, which is why I decided to stick to just a blog.  In my Beta I discussed expanding to other platforms. However, since then, I have not done so. The reason being that I didn’t want to over complicate my digital artefact. My original goal was to create a space for individuals to learn all things journaling and understand the benefits of it. I also wanted it to be a space where I was able to share things about myself and my journaling as I find that the journaling community will relate to it. It is a space for users to learn more or learn about journaling, as simple as that.
Creating the blog site was harder than I originally thought it would be. I had to create an aesthetic for it and I really struggled to get it right. The final design I think is okay. I feel as though if I had edited and designed it a bit better it would look so much more improved; however I think the idea is there.
I made my first blog post about my first attempt at journaling. It was a major challenge to start getting into the swing of things and starting to write, and in my blog, I was very honest about it.
Each blog post has writing, and one image. I did this as I wanted it to look simple and be easy to follow.
After writing two blog posts about my own personal journaling journey I realised how repetitive this blog would get. And so, for my next blog post I wrote one for my audience to follow. Food for thought, is a blog post basically for my audience to follow along and journal as they read. I ask questions and each question is directly followed by another that stems from the previous question. My aim for that specific blog post was to show others how easy it is to journal and if they hadn’t done it before, to see how they would feel. But for people who do journal, for them to have something to follow instead of freely writing.
My latest blog post was about me turning off my notifications. After watching the social dilemma on Netflix, I came to the realisation that I needed to fully involve myself in my emotions, bettering my life and journaling – which all things are what this digital artefact is about. I went social media free for 5 days, and I have never been more present and calmer in my life and so writing about my practice with it was the most therapeutic experience.
Overall, I am happy with where my DA is at, however I have had little to no engagement with my blog site which was a bit disappointing. Even though I have posted a couple of the blog posts on my twitter account with hashtags, I have found that still no one is gravitating towards the blog. I think the reason for this is that I am reaching out to the wrong crowd and should have posted it in a journaling group on Facebook or Reddit, where my true audience is.
R.
immerse into media 