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mamajoanLike almost all LJ newbies, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morgan_dhu recently went through some of the requisite pondering on what LJ is really "for," what purpose it serves, what people do/can/should use it for, and so forth. It seems to me that everyone goes through a bit of this when they join LJ. And almost everyone seems to find, after they've joined LJ, that the purpose for which they thought they were joining isn't really reflective of how they use it.
(I think that in some ways using the word "journal" in the title skews some people's perception of LJ. People come into it thinking of it as the online equivalent of a diary, and quickly find out that that doesn't translate, because a diary is generally very private and LJ is generally VERY public.)
Anyway, one thing Morgan mentioned in her musings was that she is seeing a different side of us in our LJs. Morgan and I and a bunch of other folks on my friend-list are on an email list together; and people on that list share lots of personal stuff about their lives, etc., such as one might sometimes post on LJ. But it's definitely true that I, for one, post different stuff on LJ than on the list. Sometimes I post the same stuff on both, sometimes not. A lot of the time, I use LJ as sort of a "brain-dump" where I post whatever happens to be on my mind at the moment, like "I saw a sunset; it was gorgeous" or "I'm hungry. Want chocolate" or "Go Red Sox!" Or, of course, quite frequently, "Check out these adorable pix of my baby!" ;) And it seems like none of that stuff (except the baby pix of course) is exactly appropriate for an email list; it feels too much like hogging the list with one's own personal minutiae. On LJ, though, you can feel free to hog, because it's YOUR livejournal and anyone who doesn't want to read it can just scroll onward. Or defriend you, in extreme cases of not-wanting-to-read-it. LJ is definitely egocentric in that sense.
And asplaidder has said, there's something in it of just wanting to reach out and connect with others over your stupid little random daily stuff. In many ways this is the result of what I see as a paradigm shift that the Internet has created; we want every aspect of our lives to be interactive in some sense now. Whereas in previous generations we might have been satisfied to write in our paper diaries "I'm hungry, want chocolate" and then go on with things, now we want someone to reply, even if it's just to say "I hear ya! I could use some choco-goodness right about now too!" How many of you have had the experience of being out there living your life and finding yourself thinking, "Wait'll I tell the email list about this!" or "I gotta post this on LJ!"? It's not enough any more to just live our lives; now we have to be sharing and critiquing them on-the-fly with a host of faceless others we only know by screen-names. And this of course translates to our entertainment as well; I really think that the 'net has fueled the way we view all forms of media now, and caused us to want them to be interactive in ways that we never did before -- hence the huge popularity of, for example, TV shows where you can vote on the outcome, and (taking it a step further) where you can actually be the TV show.
So LJ is just a part of the phenomenon, and it's a fun part, albeit sometimes nerve-wracking if you find yourself judging the quality of your life by how many comments you get on a particular post. ;) People of course use LJ for many different purposes, but I think one thing that everyone would have to agree with, if they were being strictly honest, is that we all want and need to know that someone else is reading it.
morgan_dhu recently went through some of the requisite pondering on what LJ is really "for," what purpose it serves, what people do/can/should use it for, and so forth. It seems to me that everyone goes through a bit of this when they join LJ. And almost everyone seems to find, after they've joined LJ, that the purpose for which they thought they were joining isn't really reflective of how they use it.(I think that in some ways using the word "journal" in the title skews some people's perception of LJ. People come into it thinking of it as the online equivalent of a diary, and quickly find out that that doesn't translate, because a diary is generally very private and LJ is generally VERY public.)
Anyway, one thing Morgan mentioned in her musings was that she is seeing a different side of us in our LJs. Morgan and I and a bunch of other folks on my friend-list are on an email list together; and people on that list share lots of personal stuff about their lives, etc., such as one might sometimes post on LJ. But it's definitely true that I, for one, post different stuff on LJ than on the list. Sometimes I post the same stuff on both, sometimes not. A lot of the time, I use LJ as sort of a "brain-dump" where I post whatever happens to be on my mind at the moment, like "I saw a sunset; it was gorgeous" or "I'm hungry. Want chocolate" or "Go Red Sox!" Or, of course, quite frequently, "Check out these adorable pix of my baby!" ;) And it seems like none of that stuff (except the baby pix of course) is exactly appropriate for an email list; it feels too much like hogging the list with one's own personal minutiae. On LJ, though, you can feel free to hog, because it's YOUR livejournal and anyone who doesn't want to read it can just scroll onward. Or defriend you, in extreme cases of not-wanting-to-read-it. LJ is definitely egocentric in that sense.
And as
plaidder has said, there's something in it of just wanting to reach out and connect with others over your stupid little random daily stuff. In many ways this is the result of what I see as a paradigm shift that the Internet has created; we want every aspect of our lives to be interactive in some sense now. Whereas in previous generations we might have been satisfied to write in our paper diaries "I'm hungry, want chocolate" and then go on with things, now we want someone to reply, even if it's just to say "I hear ya! I could use some choco-goodness right about now too!" How many of you have had the experience of being out there living your life and finding yourself thinking, "Wait'll I tell the email list about this!" or "I gotta post this on LJ!"? It's not enough any more to just live our lives; now we have to be sharing and critiquing them on-the-fly with a host of faceless others we only know by screen-names. And this of course translates to our entertainment as well; I really think that the 'net has fueled the way we view all forms of media now, and caused us to want them to be interactive in ways that we never did before -- hence the huge popularity of, for example, TV shows where you can vote on the outcome, and (taking it a step further) where you can actually be the TV show.So LJ is just a part of the phenomenon, and it's a fun part, albeit sometimes nerve-wracking if you find yourself judging the quality of your life by how many comments you get on a particular post. ;) People of course use LJ for many different purposes, but I think one thing that everyone would have to agree with, if they were being strictly honest, is that we all want and need to know that someone else is reading it.
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 11:52 am (UTC)I'm afraid I don't have your direct email, but I'm having people over for a housewarming swim and cookout this Saturday afternoon, with kids welcome 2-7PM. If you think you'd be up for it (I know it can be a bit of a handful with the young'un), let me know by email and I'll send you the invitation. skreeky at livejournal should work.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 11:55 am (UTC)*raises hand* guilty as charged. LJ, however, has completely subsumed all of the material I used to post in mailing list form. I'm still on a few lists, WOFlink being the biggie, but I don't turn to the mailing list form the way I did even a year ago. I want more immediate gratification, I guess, and LJ seems to be a handier format for it. But even intellectual/fiction-related/what-have-you conversations take place in this medium for me now. I'm really only on my various mailing lists to get the latest updates about assorted topics.
As far as the public nature of internet communication is concerned, in LJ you can control that to a very fine degree [subverting the nature of the internet?], and this gives it a definite edge for me. I'm rapidly becoming Daharyn-of-the-Filters, narrowing within narrowing. ;) So this actually feels much less public to me than a mailing list might, and much less intrusive. I wouldn't spew stuff over a list because the messages end up in someone's personal inbox. LJ is a neutral medium in and of itself; we all act on it in certain ways to give it the shape we want it to have.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 03:27 pm (UTC)I don't mind letting random strangers know what slash pairings I like, but having my father know this and make reference to it is just boggling.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 01:10 pm (UTC)And yes, my LJ is my chatter-dump, too. It's nice, because I get the urge to say something that I'm not sure an email list wants, and I can post it to my LJ and people can read it or not.
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Date: 2004-07-14 03:25 pm (UTC)My mind writes LJ posts now.
LJ has also cut down on my gossipishness by factors of zillions.
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Date: 2004-07-15 12:05 pm (UTC)OMG, yes -- ALL the time!! And frequently I forget to actually post them. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-15 01:43 pm (UTC)Sometimes I wind up writing them in the paper journal with the intent to post, but never do.
I find I'm a lot more clever than I actually am for LJ, as I'm noted for that...
no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 10:24 pm (UTC)I expected that I might well find other purposes than the one I had verbalised when I started. What's interesting to me so far is that I'm not all that inclined, yet, anyway, to use it as a journal or as a brain dump. I wonder how much of that is because I am with my partner pretty much 24/7, so I can do all my brain-dumping in person...
no subject
Date: 2004-07-15 12:04 am (UTC)After all, I interact with you tons more now than at Oberlin. :)
s'very very good.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-15 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-15 03:16 am (UTC)In other words, I completely, totally misunderstood what it was all about.
It is true that "me too!" is actually considered profound in LJ but I suspect that if I waited for someone to actually reply to an entry in my journal, well... it would be a long wait between chocolates.
I'm not sure what you mean by a "host of faceless others". I hope I would recognise almost all the people on my flist if I saw them in the street. Okay, occasionally, one gets a stray comment from someone like
plus, with a baby THAT cute...
Date: 2004-07-15 11:50 am (UTC)(I am looking, though not always posting)
Re: plus, with a baby THAT cute...
Date: 2004-07-15 12:04 pm (UTC)