A little over a year ago, DD informed me that a gift from
her was coming my way via the interwebs.
And, as it turned out, the gift was a program that prompted
me to write a post every week and upload it to a website that would, at the end
of a full year, make a hard cover book with all I have contributed.
The prompts were chosen by DD. Examples of such would be, “Who
were your friends in high school?” and “Favorite memory from early childhood”.
I received this gift with joy and dread. Here’s an abbreviated
list of why:
1.
My daughter is interested in my life 🤗
2.
My daughter will be reading what I have to say
now and in years to come 😊
3.
Does she think I need to be prompted to keep the
writing gears going? 😕
4.
In addition to stories, I already write a weekly
blog. Now I have an additional weekly assignment 😓
A year later, I can report that these prompts have been a
delight, not a burden at all. Now that the book is done, I will miss it. StoryWorth
is the name of this program, but there are others like it, and from my personal
point of view it has been worth my while.
I will add a caveat to be aware of. I have no confidence
that this operation (or others like it) is free of data mining. Even as they
promise to guard your text from such (it isn’t publicly visible or published)
the vehicle is the company’s files. Even if they do not share, there is no
guarantee they won’t sell their application to another company in the future,
and that company would pay them a good sum not for the paltry fee the users
pay, but for the wealth of private data they would have access to. Some sites
still use details in their security questions that one should never put out on
the ether, ever. These “security” access questions are thankfully giving way to
better ways, such as pins or keys in one’s possession only. But still, think of
this when you use any of these services.
Mindful of that, I typed not a single detail/name/date that
isn’t already easily available to the data miners. I was still able to put out my
thoughts and real-life stories for fifty-two weeks.
1 comment:
Mirka, what a thoughtful gift from your daughter. And how wonderful that you enjoyed it. A dear friend of mine gifted me A Grandparent's Gift of Memories--it has prompts so I plan to write in there. Several years ago, I gifted my husband a similar book for fathers--it remains untouched. But perhaps he will write a few thoughts when he is retired. I think many people freeze because they want to write something profound. I know I felt that way when I rec'd a beautiful journal. My thoughts aren't pretty so I was reluctant to write in it. But over time I realized that our simple, ordinary days have much to offer.
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