‘I Awoke at ½ Past 7’
November 19, 2025 at 04:45AMIt might seem like smart devices, personalized apps, and social media ushered us into an age of optimization. But Victorian-era diarists, writing about and responding to a time of rapid change, were already practicing a form of self-monitoring and performative self-improvement. This era of progress was equally an age of anxiety, however, and diaries also became records of failure. In her enlightening Aeon essay, historian Elena Mary examines this “golden age” of diary-keeping and draws astute parallels to our own heavily documented, anxiety-filled lives today.
Nineteenth-century diaries show a growing middle class engaged in a constant quest for self-mastery and productivity. With the invention of printed commercial diaries came a new way of looking at life and new organisational possibilities. The future could be mapped out, goal-oriented, solution-focused. The Victorians were great innovators, but progress was Janus-faced. For every leap forward, a renewed pressure to go further, and faster, to do better, be better.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/11/18/victorian-diaries-self-optimization/
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