This one goes out to the one I love....
Feb. 18th, 2002 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ferenLately there have been a lot of people remarking on the LiveJournal "phenomenon." Some people adore it, some people find it mildly interesting, some think it's silly or amusing while others detract it as being "irritating" or "exploitive."
This one is for all those who feel that I'm allowing myself to be exploited or find the fact my journal is online to be in some vague way irritating:
I really cannot understand some people, their illogic leaves me huddled in a corner, quaking and wishing for a blunt trauma to the head to take the pain away. Let's see... here we have a group of people who share a common interest. I could refer to these folks as a community because of that shared interest, yet they're a very diverse group. They come from all cultures, all races, creeds, age brackets, income levels and religions. I suppose in that sense they really are the perfect definition of a community, because they are a collection of differing people who are united or linked together by a common aspect. Yeah, in this case its their use of LJ instead of their address or zip code, but I don't think that makes the label any less valid. We have a collection of individuals who are all posting their thoughts, experiences, dreams, sexual exploits and more online; they are all sharing them with the world at large that cares to take the time to read such things. They are bound together by the common thread, the shared experience of online journaling. Furthermore, everyone who is on LiveJournal or DeadJournal or who keeps a blog has their own reasons for doing it. Likewise, each person finds pleasure in different aspects of the act than the next person, just as they find frustrations and unpleasantness with other aspects. Very much like everything else in this world there are both good and bad aspects about online journals and web logs. Yet in the end it all boils down to one key thing: it's a hobby, it is something people do because they find enjoyment in it or use it to address a specific need.
Some people whittle, some people paint, some people wrench on nitrous-powered funny cars. I like to write in my journal (along with wrenching on my car, toying with the computers, skiing, and all the other things I do besides jot in my journal). It's a hobby. A hobby is not something to get irritated over. Would these people find it irritating if I collected and listened to old vinyl LPs, or collected Dilbert figures? Probably not. So why does this bother them so much? Are they feeling left out that they're not part of the crowd? Did they have a bad experience trying to do something similar in the past? Are they miffed that the people who have these journals aren't doing it for the reasons that they think they should have journals for? They don't like what's being written or said in these journals? Does free expression upset them or what? What is the goddamn malfunction here that makes them so cross towards a simple hobby?
I've analyzed why I like LiveJournal before, and I'll probably end up doing it again repeatedly before everything is said and done. So I will say it again: I do it for any number of reasons. For example, I write in my LiveJournal so that I can keep others (who may or may not be interested) appraised of what's going on in my life. I use it to belong to a group, because a lot of my friends have LiveJournals as well and it makes me feel even more like I'm a part of that group. I use it as a tool to help me weigh options and rationalize decisions I've made (or may have to make) because sometimes I can gain perspective by writing it down and having it all printed in front of me instead of swimming around in my head. At times I have been known to use it to solicit advice from the reading audience (primarily my friends, but other people who read it as well) about different choices or dilemmas I am presented with. Most frequently I use it as a method to vent frustrations and concerns that are weighing heavily on my mind at the moment. Let me expand on that last reason for a moment, because it's not entirely accurate. I often use my LiveJournal to vent and rant (if only I could be as loquacious and elegant as the ranting gryphon![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
2_gryphon) and while doing so I try to give a little something extra by attempting to educate and/or entertain while I ramble. I don't know how often I succeed, but so long as somebody gets a chuckle out of it I'm happy... even if that chuckle is from me when I reread the entry at some later date. On top of all that there is one final, insurmountable reason that I keep an online journal: it's convenient for me to do so. I've tried in past years to write in a paper journal and I just get frustrated with the whole situation; my brain works faster than my hands can write, so ideas get lost or short-changed. If I try to speed up my handwriting to go with the flow the words I put on the paper become so illegible as to be mistaken for some dead tongue from a lost civilization. Eventually I came to realize that since I grew up typing on computers I would probably be better serviced by keeping a journal on my computer. I attempted to do so in a few different ways, none of which were satisfactory for me. I couldn't use NotePad because I'd reach its maximum allowable length in a short amount of time. Using MS Word was a simple case of overkill, and neither solution afforded me the ability to sort the entries in any sort of logical manner. LiveJournal presented me with a simple, intuitive interface. It solved my storage problems, it gave me features that I didn't need but found to be rather convenient and almost indispensable after I got acquainted with them (read: mood icons and "memories"). All around LiveJournal was the solution to my problem, and it had the added benefit of being put together in such a way that other people who have journals can link to me and vice-versa, presenting me with a single point to go in and read what's going on with my friends if I haven't talked with them in a while.
That last sentence brings me to an interesting point.urocyon remarked in his journal that he's been encountering a lot of friends and acquaintances online who, when questioned as to what's new/their current state of well-being/etc have in answer pointed him to their LiveJournal or web log. I'm probably one of the offenders he references, because I know I've done similar with other folks (and I just can't remember if I've done it to him... I must be getting old, because that's when the memory goes. Or is that the eyesight? I can't remember). He quite candidly remarks that LiveJournals have in some ways taken the place of simple communication between two intelligent beings and removed the pleasure that one can feel by simply talking with a like-minded individual. The thing is that I can really see where he's coming from on that and while I don't think it's quite that prevalent I do think it's begun to encroach on the territory that once was held by simple conversation by providing an easy-to-access summary of events (assuming that said summary is written in something other than 3133+-speak by some twelve year-old dolt who speaks Ebonics as his first language and English as a distant fifth). That impersonal brush-off was most certainly not what I wanted or meant to happen when I'd pointed individuals to my LJ in answer to their questions of "how's stuff" or "what's new," though. The only reasons I would do something like that would be because I'm being questioned on a topic that I've answered multiple times in the last few hours (how's your cat) and I don't want to bore them with a longwinded answer they'll have to read when my LJ can be read at leisure... or because I'm just too exhausted to formulate an intelligent reply to their inquiry (in which case I should have just gotten my butt offline and done something to recharge my batteries, like sleep) without feeling like I was glossing over details. I still enjoy socializing (in that weird way that you're allowed to do so) online, and I certainly don't want my output in my LiveJournal to take the place of actual conversations. I crave discourse and debate. I seek intelligent thought and above all I prize sentences that have more than three syllables in them and use words that make me reach occasionally for a dictionary.
Yet I digress from my previous point. No matter what the reason, we have here a group of people who share a common interest: they're sharing -- of their own volition -- different parts of their lives, participating in a community of other individuals who have the same interest. These people are doing no harm to anyone by writing their journals and posting them publicly (I will for the moment skirt around the issue of a friend or associate reading an entry that they find upsetting/offensive and then causing something of a skirmish... sadly this is one of the downsides of public journaling, as some friends of myjenwolf have found out), and nobody is forcing anybody to read those entries. So what's so goddamn bad about keeping an online journal? Why does this individual in question find my LiveJournal to be "irritating?" If you don't like it, don't fucking read it -- yes, people it is just that simple. It's a big ol' web, I'm sure you can find something else out there to pass your time with. If it's not your bag, I'm cool with that, I can understand it... live and let live, right? But as I've said before: just because you don't like it doesn't make it bad or make me a lesser individual for participating in it.
Or maybe I'm just wrong.
I just passed a Jimmy and a White, I been passin' everything in sight
This one is for all those who feel that I'm allowing myself to be exploited or find the fact my journal is online to be in some vague way irritating:
Y'ALL CAN BITE ME HARD.
I really cannot understand some people, their illogic leaves me huddled in a corner, quaking and wishing for a blunt trauma to the head to take the pain away. Let's see... here we have a group of people who share a common interest. I could refer to these folks as a community because of that shared interest, yet they're a very diverse group. They come from all cultures, all races, creeds, age brackets, income levels and religions. I suppose in that sense they really are the perfect definition of a community, because they are a collection of differing people who are united or linked together by a common aspect. Yeah, in this case its their use of LJ instead of their address or zip code, but I don't think that makes the label any less valid. We have a collection of individuals who are all posting their thoughts, experiences, dreams, sexual exploits and more online; they are all sharing them with the world at large that cares to take the time to read such things. They are bound together by the common thread, the shared experience of online journaling. Furthermore, everyone who is on LiveJournal or DeadJournal or who keeps a blog has their own reasons for doing it. Likewise, each person finds pleasure in different aspects of the act than the next person, just as they find frustrations and unpleasantness with other aspects. Very much like everything else in this world there are both good and bad aspects about online journals and web logs. Yet in the end it all boils down to one key thing: it's a hobby, it is something people do because they find enjoyment in it or use it to address a specific need.
Some people whittle, some people paint, some people wrench on nitrous-powered funny cars. I like to write in my journal (along with wrenching on my car, toying with the computers, skiing, and all the other things I do besides jot in my journal). It's a hobby. A hobby is not something to get irritated over. Would these people find it irritating if I collected and listened to old vinyl LPs, or collected Dilbert figures? Probably not. So why does this bother them so much? Are they feeling left out that they're not part of the crowd? Did they have a bad experience trying to do something similar in the past? Are they miffed that the people who have these journals aren't doing it for the reasons that they think they should have journals for? They don't like what's being written or said in these journals? Does free expression upset them or what? What is the goddamn malfunction here that makes them so cross towards a simple hobby?
I've analyzed why I like LiveJournal before, and I'll probably end up doing it again repeatedly before everything is said and done. So I will say it again: I do it for any number of reasons. For example, I write in my LiveJournal so that I can keep others (who may or may not be interested) appraised of what's going on in my life. I use it to belong to a group, because a lot of my friends have LiveJournals as well and it makes me feel even more like I'm a part of that group. I use it as a tool to help me weigh options and rationalize decisions I've made (or may have to make) because sometimes I can gain perspective by writing it down and having it all printed in front of me instead of swimming around in my head. At times I have been known to use it to solicit advice from the reading audience (primarily my friends, but other people who read it as well) about different choices or dilemmas I am presented with. Most frequently I use it as a method to vent frustrations and concerns that are weighing heavily on my mind at the moment. Let me expand on that last reason for a moment, because it's not entirely accurate. I often use my LiveJournal to vent and rant (if only I could be as loquacious and elegant as the ranting gryphon
2_gryphon) and while doing so I try to give a little something extra by attempting to educate and/or entertain while I ramble. I don't know how often I succeed, but so long as somebody gets a chuckle out of it I'm happy... even if that chuckle is from me when I reread the entry at some later date. On top of all that there is one final, insurmountable reason that I keep an online journal: it's convenient for me to do so. I've tried in past years to write in a paper journal and I just get frustrated with the whole situation; my brain works faster than my hands can write, so ideas get lost or short-changed. If I try to speed up my handwriting to go with the flow the words I put on the paper become so illegible as to be mistaken for some dead tongue from a lost civilization. Eventually I came to realize that since I grew up typing on computers I would probably be better serviced by keeping a journal on my computer. I attempted to do so in a few different ways, none of which were satisfactory for me. I couldn't use NotePad because I'd reach its maximum allowable length in a short amount of time. Using MS Word was a simple case of overkill, and neither solution afforded me the ability to sort the entries in any sort of logical manner. LiveJournal presented me with a simple, intuitive interface. It solved my storage problems, it gave me features that I didn't need but found to be rather convenient and almost indispensable after I got acquainted with them (read: mood icons and "memories"). All around LiveJournal was the solution to my problem, and it had the added benefit of being put together in such a way that other people who have journals can link to me and vice-versa, presenting me with a single point to go in and read what's going on with my friends if I haven't talked with them in a while.That last sentence brings me to an interesting point.
urocyon remarked in his journal that he's been encountering a lot of friends and acquaintances online who, when questioned as to what's new/their current state of well-being/etc have in answer pointed him to their LiveJournal or web log. I'm probably one of the offenders he references, because I know I've done similar with other folks (and I just can't remember if I've done it to him... I must be getting old, because that's when the memory goes. Or is that the eyesight? I can't remember). He quite candidly remarks that LiveJournals have in some ways taken the place of simple communication between two intelligent beings and removed the pleasure that one can feel by simply talking with a like-minded individual. The thing is that I can really see where he's coming from on that and while I don't think it's quite that prevalent I do think it's begun to encroach on the territory that once was held by simple conversation by providing an easy-to-access summary of events (assuming that said summary is written in something other than 3133+-speak by some twelve year-old dolt who speaks Ebonics as his first language and English as a distant fifth). That impersonal brush-off was most certainly not what I wanted or meant to happen when I'd pointed individuals to my LJ in answer to their questions of "how's stuff" or "what's new," though. The only reasons I would do something like that would be because I'm being questioned on a topic that I've answered multiple times in the last few hours (how's your cat) and I don't want to bore them with a longwinded answer they'll have to read when my LJ can be read at leisure... or because I'm just too exhausted to formulate an intelligent reply to their inquiry (in which case I should have just gotten my butt offline and done something to recharge my batteries, like sleep) without feeling like I was glossing over details. I still enjoy socializing (in that weird way that you're allowed to do so) online, and I certainly don't want my output in my LiveJournal to take the place of actual conversations. I crave discourse and debate. I seek intelligent thought and above all I prize sentences that have more than three syllables in them and use words that make me reach occasionally for a dictionary.Yet I digress from my previous point. No matter what the reason, we have here a group of people who share a common interest: they're sharing -- of their own volition -- different parts of their lives, participating in a community of other individuals who have the same interest. These people are doing no harm to anyone by writing their journals and posting them publicly (I will for the moment skirt around the issue of a friend or associate reading an entry that they find upsetting/offensive and then causing something of a skirmish... sadly this is one of the downsides of public journaling, as some friends of my
jenwolf have found out), and nobody is forcing anybody to read those entries. So what's so goddamn bad about keeping an online journal? Why does this individual in question find my LiveJournal to be "irritating?" If you don't like it, don't fucking read it -- yes, people it is just that simple. It's a big ol' web, I'm sure you can find something else out there to pass your time with. If it's not your bag, I'm cool with that, I can understand it... live and let live, right? But as I've said before: just because you don't like it doesn't make it bad or make me a lesser individual for participating in it.Or maybe I'm just wrong.
I just passed a Jimmy and a White, I been passin' everything in sight
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-02-18 10:36 am (UTC)I've kept an online journal for over two years and it's been nothing but helpful. I can record my feelings, my observations, my ponderings, and have them someplace where I can look back and re-muse them after time has passed to see if and how my opinions have changed.
I agree. Anyone who bitches about folks keeping journals kin go blow.
no subject
Date: 2002-02-18 10:52 am (UTC)As for pointing people to one's LJ, the only thing I really keep in mind is that if there's something I want to communicate to someone, it's important to me that they hear it from me, not read about it in my LJ.
I also wanted to comment on this:
I often use my LiveJournal to vent and rant (if only I could be as loquacious and elegant as the ranting gryphon)
My friend, I think you more than hold your own in that department :-)
P.S. - Genesis, I love that icon!
no subject
Date: 2002-02-18 10:53 am (UTC)I tend to be a fairly cheery person so I rarely get to use it, but I revel in the times that I can ;)
In Recognition...
Date: 2002-02-18 12:04 pm (UTC)Hmm, you're on your way to becoming a celebrity. Way to go. ;)
Anyway, I recently was talking to a friend who abstains from LJ and the like because he basically thinks it does more harm than good. I attempted to uphold it, but I think I'll point him to your post if he nay-says it again.
P.S. Had to say...
Date: 2002-02-18 12:11 pm (UTC)If you'd be interested in seeing Type O's collection of music videos, ask Tremaine to lend you his copy.
Re: In Recognition...
Date: 2002-02-18 12:33 pm (UTC)See, if he avoids it because he thinks it does more harm than good and just leaves it at that, then that's fine with me. I can see where he's coming from, the potential to say the wrong thing or let something "get out" is high and some people don't want to deal with the potential hassle. If he's got his opinion on the matter, his reasons for his opinion, and he's not getting on other people's cases about it, then I'm cool with that. It's when people start getting down on it and totally bent out of shape about the issue and the people who participate that I start getting cross, especially when they have no real reason for it. I liken it to going to a classic car show and commenting to somebody who is showing their car, "Yeah, you've got a nice 69 Camaro SS there, but I don't really like the way they did the grill/bumpers/etc. I myself enjoy a 68 Mach One Mustang." That's cool and polite, and nobody's stepped on because there's a chance for dialog and things are phrased so that it's opinion only. However, going up to the guy and screaming at the top of your lungs "Camaros are shitty cars and should all be melted for slag," that will buy you a well-deserved punch in the mouth. Disagreeing is one thing, I'm a firm believer that everyone has a right to their own opinion on things, and that opinion won't always align with mine. However, being a jerk about it is another thing entirely and earns you a trip behind the barn for your reeducation by 2x4.
Re: In Recognition...
Date: 2002-02-18 01:10 pm (UTC)Re: In Recognition...
Date: 2002-02-18 02:33 pm (UTC)Then I believe the proper response is "bleah."
no subject
Date: 2002-02-18 04:31 pm (UTC)Eventually, I ought to install Graymatter or some other journaling software that will work on my own machine. I am envious of Micah's ability to build her website on top of her database and insert all sorts of information in a reasonably organized form. ('gryn)
LJ Naysayers...
Date: 2002-02-18 07:47 pm (UTC)The first group seems to look at it from the author's perspective. They perceive it as a forum for the boring to espouse upon the details of their life as if it's earth shattering that they had Cheerios for breakfast; a forum for building false self-worth and a breeding ground for whiners. "No cute girls cuddled me when I joined IRC last night." "My mom threw away my fursuit." "The guy who cut me off on the way to the comic store was a real jerk!" Write in it and you can feel important because you're telling your story and someone someday will read it and pity you or better still fall in love with you and you'll live happily ever after.
The other group seems to look at it from the reader's perspective. They see webjournalling as a new form of voyeurism. Here you have the grand opportunity to peep into peoples' windows with gay abandon and see who's cheatin' who and who's lonely and who's stealing paperclips from work; it's the reduction of everyone's life stories to anonymous entertainment. Read it and laugh at how pathetic this person is, smile at that person's discovering true love, and then close IE without a further thought and go take a dump. All this, and (in some instances) you pay to tell your story, which makes it exploitative. And if you're a writer, you've got a brand new royalty-free idea mine.
Somewhere in both camps there are nuggets of valid criticism: Webjournals have the potential for warping a user's sense of reality. And you never know how someone will use what a user writes. But as with everything, webjournals will be used for good and for ill, and we can but hope that the love we take is equal to the love we make. Or something.