Livejournal - why's and wherefores of writing online

[shadowkat]

It's almost 1 am, and I should be in bed, but I'm wired. Partly because I had too much chocolate after 7pm, and partly because I'm nervous about an interview and volunteer gig next week. So I'm dealing with it the way I always deal with stress, by writing about something else. Writing is how I handle pain, stress, joy, etc. It drives me. If I wasn't doing it online, I'd be doing it in a private journal. The reason I bring this up is well, something that's been nagging at me since Thursday's Ghost in The Robot Gig.

At the gig, I remarked to someone that I kept a livejournal. The person scoffed at me, hinting that livejournal keepers spend way too much time online interacting with faceless entities instead of real-people. The comment bothered me. (For several reasons, which I won't go into - but the main one was whether or not she was right, was I relying on a crutch?)

So I thought it over a bit. Was this a crutch? The person I mentioned is *not* a writer and non-writers do not understand the drive to write. To figure out things through the written word and the preference for the written word over say oral communication. To me - emailing back and forth or exchanging livejournal posts is far more productive and far easier than picking up a cell phone (which I don't own) or a phone period.
I express myself best through the written word. That said?
I do use the phone and have met many of the people I've exchanged emails with online in person. I also enjoy face to face contact. But I never would have met these people if it weren't for the ability to express myself through words online. Several of them contacted me - because of those words.

Livejournal unlike fanboards or posting boards or listserves, provides the journal keeper with a vast network of contacts, interests and discussion topics. You don't have to worry about a moderator telling you something is *too* personal or *off* topic. Nor do you have to worry about the world seeing what you post - since you can privatize or friends lock it - restricting your words to a few friends. What many outsiders do not realize is that livejournal is *not* restricted to fan topics. You can discuss writing on livejournal, gardening, art, business, what job you have, post jobs, ask for employment, ask for information about a company, involve others in a writing experiment, the list is endless. In livejournal you have the ability to express yourself any way you wish through words and images. You aren't censored for language, content or images. Livejournal is an expression of what the internet was meant to be - a means of quickly exchanging ideas and thoughts without worrying about international boundaries or vast distances. With livejournal, you can interact on a daily basis and become friends with someone who lives across the country or world from you. It's not the same as letter writing, in letter writing you have to wait for a reply or hope it is recieved - this is instant.

The person I spoke to, said it wasn't real contact, partly because we all use pseudonymes or online names. But isn't it? I've received tangible items from people as far away from England and California. What is real contact? Talking on a telephone? Meeting someone in the street? How do we connect with each other and whose to say what is real and what isn't?

Granted if you spend 24/7 on your livejournal, you might want to take a break. But none of my livejournal friends do that.
We post about our lives. Movies we've seen. Books we've read.
Friends we've met. Things we've written. Jobs we have. So clearly we aren't spending all of our time online. Actually I spend less time now than I did without a livejournal.

Why do I continue to keep one? Because it makes me happy.
I enjoy the connection and the interaction. I learn something new about myself and the world every time I read my friends list. It broadens my mind and challenges it. It also keeps me focused on my goals.

I'm not sure people who don't know about livejournal or have never tried it can possibly understand how wonderful an experience it is to someone who loves to write and read as much as I do. Nor am I sure it matters. I learned long ago that not everyone will understand my passions and interests, many I've kept private over the years (such as comic books and
cult tv shows like BTVS), but that should not prevent me from having them or sharing them with others.

Well, off to bed now. Read some more of Dunnett's Ringed Castle, take a hot shower, maybe relax, before getting up around 9ish tomorrow morning to call staffing companies and do more research on Liberty Mutual.

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

To me - emailing back and forth or exchanging livejournal posts is far more productive and far easier than picking up a cell phone (which I don't own) or a phone period.

Well, you're not going to get an attitude from me about this subject! I am a writer, and the written word is the medium that is the most natural for me. I don't like talking to people on the phone unless I really know them well. I'd rather talk to people in person than use the phone.

I do use the phone and have met many of the people I've exchanged emails with online in person. I also enjoy face to face contact. But I never would have met these people if it weren't for the ability to express myself through words online. Several of them contacted me - because of those words.

The on-line experience gets a bad rap, I think. I think people who don't spend much time here see those who do as little moles hiding out in their homes afraid of people, afraid of the world, interacting only through words and ineptly at that. They don't see these fabulous communities of ideas and fun we create for ourselves. How we meet people from all over the country and the world we would never otherwise meet.

And we get together and spend time together.

And we tell each other all about our lives. We become intimates.

I sometimes question how much time I spend on line. But it's so much easier here to meet people I really have things in common with. The people I run into everyday--so few of them are BtVS/AtS fans, so few of them are writers, so few of them read the books I've read and enjoyed. So few of them ever get to the point in their relationship with me where we're talking about the interesting deeper issues of life.

I suppose I could hit the pavement and start looking for people like this in the big city I live in. But you know what? I'd have better luck if I put an ad in the paper, or better yet--on the internet!

It's just a tool. A medium we use to cut through the miasma and the crowds of people and get a chance to know people. The thing about the internet is you get to know people's minds first, their personalities. If your someone like me who has a tendency to pre-judge people unfairly by their looks, this is an enormous help.

[oyceter]

You know, I've sort of been wondering about this too, given my utter lack of a social life outside of LJ and the boy ;). That, and that recent article...

But, I love writing in my LJ. I also love reading RL friends' LJs, and I love reading the LJs of all the really cool people I've met through it (and AtPO). Mostly I am fascinated with the different ways people can think and the different lives we all lead, and LJ is a great window into that.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

People think it's some kind of weird new phenomenon. However, the idea of having a community that isn't based in immediately face to face contact goes back quite some way - I've just read a memoir in which the author describes the 'Correspondence Club' she was in before, during and well after World War II. (And will probably be posting on this at more length in my own lj.) I'm increasingly interested in doing something about pre-internet 'virtual communities' in my own research.

Yes, yes and yes

[ann1962]

I agree with everything you said. I love lj. I love to read about other people's lives (yes they do have lives like you state). It is not something we *only* do. I have had one or two life changing realizations from this lj experience. It truly shocked and thrilled me when this happened. I have thought about the crutch thing too, and although I am online way more, I think it has made a difference in my life. I do not have enough time to waste on doing things that produce no enjoyment, take me to places I don't want to go. I believe there is a writer in all of us who partake in this experience and I am thrilled to have been welcomed, friended and READ. lol

Good luck this week by the way. Fingers are crossed for you.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

At the gig, I remarked to someone that I kept a livejournal. The person scoffed at me, hinting that livejournal keepers spend way too much time online interacting with faceless entities instead of real-people.

The problem never seems to go away, does it? There are always those people who can't imagine anyone else having different interests from theirs and wanting a life different from what they dream about. There was a time I'd snap back at people like this, asking why anyone with a sense of self worth would go to concerts regularly just to see celebrities, or wonder aloud how empty the lives of people who'd sit in a stadium for hours watching a car race must be, or I'd attack whatever I knew the other person had a passion for. Sometimes they'd get the hint, sometimes they didn't. But it never really helped.

The point is that anyone can have a place they retreat to for personal pleasure. There are indeed folks who waste their lives on the net. Just as there are folks who waste their lives playing golf all the time, fretting about politics constantly, or even concentrating on making money all the time. Anything can be done to excess, and those that do whatever to excess probably deserve, even need the criticism of what they are doing. But, most people involved with odd (or 'normal') past times, and weird (or 'commonplace') hobbies, don't need any help. They are doing what they like and getting some enjoyment out of it.

Clearly the person who chided you had no idea what can go on here among reasonably intelligent folks; doesn't see all the good things you and others have mentioned. When someone says something like that person did to you again, just smile knowingly and shake your head at their ignorance. Let them be the one wondering at what you think of them.

There is just one answer to that comment

[graffitiandsara.livejournal.com]

84 Charing Cross Road. Written communication may be different from face to face, but it is certainly as valid. The fact that we meet each other in real life is a bonus, but certainly not a requirement to validate this form of interaction. I find that there is something intrinsically pure about communicating solely through words, although certainly more dangerous, and always fascinating. The most wonderful thing about the net, that makes up for the kind of sleazy aspects, is that it gives people a chance to make real connections with people who you would never have an opportunity to meet in life. You get windows into lives completely different from your own, or you get to talk to people who have the same weird interests you have, and find out they're not so weird. Personally, I think it's way cool.

Plus - good luck with the interview and the volunteering position. You never know what will be the key opportunity - our newly promoted Director of Archives, started out here as volunteer, 4 or 5 years ago.

[arethusa2.livejournal.com]

The net lets me interact with people and still be a stay-at-home mother. It lets me write every day, somthing I've discovered I need as much as I want. And now I'm going to meet these amazing people who actually like the things I like, when other people laugh in my face when I tell them I like fantasy and science fiction. It helps me communicate without being hampered by shyness and insecurity, as I often am in real life, although not as much as I used to before I came on-line. It's been a wonderful thing for me, and I try to ignore the people who mock it, just like I ignore the people who make fun of my interests or who are appalled by my religious and political beliefs.

There's so much unhappiness in life, so many difficulties to overcome, and so little genuine connection with people. I'm happy to accept friendship wherever I find it.

[claudia-yvr.livejournal.com]

A lot of the writers in the BtVS fandom had LJs, and that's what initially drew me here about a year and a half ago. While I still enjoy reading snippets of fic hot off the presses, as well as thoughts on episodes or characters, what I love most is the interaction and sense of community, based not just on fandom, but on discussions about RL. People can, and do, talk about anything and everything, and I find that incredibly liberating and informative and mind-expanding.

In short, my experiences here enrich my life offline.