The LJ Way
I know I'm not the only one who was moved by sealwhiskers's latest comments on online communities past and present, but I've been meaning for a few days now to respond to her post, and now's as good a time as any.
I stopped using Facebook for a few weeks earlier this month, on account of work pressures and personal deadlines that were wearing me down. When I got back, I was rather depressed to see how little had changed.
It's not just that the Note system has nothing on LJ's entry style. It's not just that I hate the generalized manner in which news items are treated--the way the very format of the site greatly narrows opportunities for genuine discussion around key issues raised by spurious and quickly cast off news links. And it's not just the incomprehensible algorithms Facebook uses when deciding whose news I should and shouldn't have on my reader on any given day--although that really gets my goat.
No.
It's also me. I really don't like the person I am in that forum--the frivolous, throwaway status updates I issue, the sheer amount of time I waste on that site, and the bizarrely superficial ways I end up attempting to ingratiate myself into other people's lives through lazy features (the "like" button, for instance) and artificialities like Groups, Events, and shared participation in secondary applications.
Yes, I have been attempting to maintain another blog--a public blog--for a few months now. Closing up the store where I work until tomorrow has been so time-consuming I haven't had much of a chance for any blogging at all as of late, but even when I do have time for my Wordpress blog, I know it's at the cost of personal online forums, of which I have two: Facebook, and LJ. In the past, Facebook has thus won out--mostly because I can so simply repost my Wordpress writings there, or leave a few silly words at the end of a long day that will be forgotten within a few hours.
But even as Facebook has won out in the past due to its ease and simplicity, I have grown increasingly frustrated by my slide from depth. Certainly, I'm not always pleased with the person I am on LJ--I think lambda_calculus said it best here, when he wrote, "I cannot enter the mindset to write here without being buried under my own total past. Things simply dim, my desire to even reach for a word ... my hand comes down, stubborn, aching, listless. I have built up a personality, one that while real is not complete, but I am torn between my distaste for suppressing the past and needing to not even have that past in sight."--but I am more comfortable with the act of and framework for self-evaluation that LJ still actively nurtures.
I have 278 people friended on Facebook. I still don't know what the heck that means. Meanwhile, I truly think of every person on my LJ friends list as someone I have travelled with, someone I have grown with, someone I have shared with earnestly and learned from, and someone whose personal thoughts and travails will never cease to be a part of my day.
That's the LJ difference--if you will, the LJ way. And that's why I'm making a serious commitment to push past all the ease of Facebook and shake out all the dusty old cobwebs of my more dedicated and in-depth participation with this community instead.
Best wishes and lots of love to all of you--my writers, my lovers, my dreamers, and my friends!
I stopped using Facebook for a few weeks earlier this month, on account of work pressures and personal deadlines that were wearing me down. When I got back, I was rather depressed to see how little had changed.
It's not just that the Note system has nothing on LJ's entry style. It's not just that I hate the generalized manner in which news items are treated--the way the very format of the site greatly narrows opportunities for genuine discussion around key issues raised by spurious and quickly cast off news links. And it's not just the incomprehensible algorithms Facebook uses when deciding whose news I should and shouldn't have on my reader on any given day--although that really gets my goat.
No.
It's also me. I really don't like the person I am in that forum--the frivolous, throwaway status updates I issue, the sheer amount of time I waste on that site, and the bizarrely superficial ways I end up attempting to ingratiate myself into other people's lives through lazy features (the "like" button, for instance) and artificialities like Groups, Events, and shared participation in secondary applications.
Yes, I have been attempting to maintain another blog--a public blog--for a few months now. Closing up the store where I work until tomorrow has been so time-consuming I haven't had much of a chance for any blogging at all as of late, but even when I do have time for my Wordpress blog, I know it's at the cost of personal online forums, of which I have two: Facebook, and LJ. In the past, Facebook has thus won out--mostly because I can so simply repost my Wordpress writings there, or leave a few silly words at the end of a long day that will be forgotten within a few hours.
But even as Facebook has won out in the past due to its ease and simplicity, I have grown increasingly frustrated by my slide from depth. Certainly, I'm not always pleased with the person I am on LJ--I think lambda_calculus said it best here, when he wrote, "I cannot enter the mindset to write here without being buried under my own total past. Things simply dim, my desire to even reach for a word ... my hand comes down, stubborn, aching, listless. I have built up a personality, one that while real is not complete, but I am torn between my distaste for suppressing the past and needing to not even have that past in sight."--but I am more comfortable with the act of and framework for self-evaluation that LJ still actively nurtures.
I have 278 people friended on Facebook. I still don't know what the heck that means. Meanwhile, I truly think of every person on my LJ friends list as someone I have travelled with, someone I have grown with, someone I have shared with earnestly and learned from, and someone whose personal thoughts and travails will never cease to be a part of my day.
That's the LJ difference--if you will, the LJ way. And that's why I'm making a serious commitment to push past all the ease of Facebook and shake out all the dusty old cobwebs of my more dedicated and in-depth participation with this community instead.
Best wishes and lots of love to all of you--my writers, my lovers, my dreamers, and my friends!