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
That last sentence brings me to an interesting point.
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
Or maybe I'm just wrong.
I just passed a Jimmy and a White, I been passin' everything in sight