JOURNALING, SPIRITUALITY, AND SUBJECTIVITY IN CONTEMPORARY ADOLESCENCE: EXPOSURE AND INTERIORITY

Abstract

This article critically analyzes journaling as a contemporary practice of experimentation, subjective elaboration, self-care, and the search for meaning among Generation Alpha adolescents within environments mediated by digital platforms. It is hypothesized that the growth of self-writing practices on social media simultaneously expresses both the intensification of the performative logic of digital culture and subjective attempts at emotional reorganization in the face of fragile contemporary bonds. As discussed by Paula, Paula, and Klemz (2026a), today's youth faces complex challenges stemming from the weakening of traditional references and social volatility. In a society marked by hyperexposure, conversational acceleration, and a dependence on external validation, adolescents paradoxically experience an excess of connectivity alongside a lack of deep connections. In this scenario, practices such as journaling emerge as forms of self-listening and interiority, shaping up to be vital subjective and spiritual resources for coping with existential and institutional crises. Grounded in the contributions of Michel Foucault, Byung-Chul Han, Zygmunt Bauman, Viktor Frankl, Leonardo Boff, and recent literature on the adolescent condition, this study problematizes the relationships between digital platforms, performative intimacy, spirituality, and self-writing. Methodologically, this is a bibliographic and theoretical-reflexive research. It concludes that journaling can operate both as a practice captured by the visibility logics of platforms and as an ethical exercise of symbolic edification, self-care, and the reconstruction of meaning in the face of contemporary emotional fragmentation.