What is LJ, anyway?

[deborahjross]

It strikes me that the function-as-community is in some ways incompatible with the function-as-journal. For me, the journal function is a semi-private place to track writing progress, interesting events, general light comments. Even with the "friends" filter (which I haven't figured out how to do, but I'm sure my 19 yo can show me), I'm very aware this is public. There is much of my life that never goes here. Privacy, confidentiality, and sheer prudence.

However, it's a useful way to keep in touch with what friends and family are up to. If they, too, post daily chat.

Then there's community, which is give-and-take, conversation, debate/n/discussion, the thousand daily threads that weave our lives together, and also the sometimes-illusion that we actually know one another. We do and we don't, and sometimes we do in a deeper way than face-to-face.

Off to practice Mozart... Minuet K. 6. I think he was about 4 when he wrote it.

Comments

[patchwork-prose.livejournal.com]

To me, LJ seems like a small-town neighborhood. As private as anything gets--there is a "Private" access setting that makes the post viewable just to you. That is where I keep notes to myself.

I don't get any replies on my blogspot blog. That *feels* much more private, because it doesn't have the friends list to link it to other people's blogs. I haven't turned off the reply function there, but I have considered doing so. I notice that I post different stuff there than I do here.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I like the analogy to a small town, since I live in one. A certain amount of everyone minding everyone else's business, and also a certain amount of things that never leave these four walls.

As I get older, I get more cautious about confidentiality, and how important it is to preserve it. Part of that is keeping my own boundaries, not blabbing to people I don't know well or in public situations. For all that, I'm pretty open on many topics, for example the murder of my mother. People assume sometimes that I can't bear to mention it, but actually, talking about it is part of recovering from it, by de-secret-izing it.

[cardigirl.livejournal.com]

LJ is an interesting critter, I agree. I can't agree or disagree with quietspaces's assessment of it as a small town because I've never lived in one -- but the sense of a (relatively) closed community is definitely there. After I discovered my (rather strange) brother had found my journal, I started friends-locking a lot of my posts. Also, there are a handful of known readers who I pull up for consideration with a "would I want that person to know this?" whenever I get ready to post something. And like QuietSpaces, I use the Private toggle for things I occasionally want to write to myself.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I think I'm just too paranoid to put anything I really want kept private online anywhere. I know this isn't reasonable, but I feel safer with paper journals. Part of this is that I feel so safe with my family and I don't know who's out there in internet-land. Who knows, I may not feel this way forever. I certainly go through phases of talking more and talking less, and as I go on, the urgent "need" to divulge things lightens, and also I have a surer sense of who is an appropriate person to share with.