LJ FB PR OMGWTFBBQ
So it occurred to me the other day, aka three minutes ago, that I used to be attached to my LiveJournal account to a freaky extent; we were basically conjoined twins. What happened? When I did I stop updating or needing LJ?
The rise of the mainstream internet, my friends, social networking sites.
Journaling on a social networking/community site like PureRave, which I've been doing for the past few years, is a good time, but it gets repetitive and boring, and like Facebook, I never really want to "open up" or talk about things that are really meaningful. I simply have too many acquaintances on these sites who I don't think should be able to access every single thought I have or feel like sharing, even if the last thing they'd think of would to lurk my journal or notes or what-have-you.
It's not that I write really personal entries, I just prefer a tighter-knit communitylike feeling when I'm on the internet; Facebook is great for what it is, as is PureRave, but you don't really make friends out of the blue.
I suppose FB and PR are both extensions of my In Real Life social life. I use FB as a major communication tool; nobody uses MSN or e-mail anymore, but they're almost constantly accessible by FB. When I haven't had a cellphone or any phone I've been able to make plans and communicate with my friends over facebook with ease. But facebook also sickens me with its pillaging of our privacy and sneaky sketchery. I use facebook out of necessity, no longer out of appreciation.
PureRave is the next step toward community; it's a condensation or distillation of people on Facebook into a smaller community of people who have much more in common. They may not all be connected to the rave scene, but you can bet that they're at least affiliated with it or know someone who is in some way. We share event information, pictures, things we've found on the internet, and our thoughts through journaling. I prefer it to FB because of the journaling component.
I've been able to gain more intimate relationships with my IRL friends through what say in their journals: their experiences, what they might be struggling with in any aspect of their lives, their feelings about their days, opinions on books, movies, and so on. It's a great way to keep up with the goings-on of friends when you're out of town/province/the country. In comparison, Facebook has devolved into the "Like" button, where we don't even have to make the effort to type anything in and press send, we just click a button that gets all that hard stuff out of the way.
But PR journals remove a lot of the mystery from real-life relationships. When I meet up with a bunch of my friends we don't always know what to talk about because we already know, because we've already read one another's latest PR journals. Not to mention the number of really dumb entries people write, the frustrating amount of YouTube videos posted that no one is going to watch, and the entries so vague that they need not have been written in the first place.
I want a space on the internet where I don't have to censor myself because of what a friend of mine might think. I want a space to talk about friends or people by name and not have to fear the consequences that might come from someone telling someone else some misconstrued complaint or worry I had about a friend or aquaintance.
I want to be able to write about myself articulately and record my opinions unabashedly, and in return receive comments that are more substantial than "omg I agree", or "awww". Not that those previous were actual comments I've received...
I have rambled on for far too long; the moral of my story is this:
I AM RETURNING TO LIVEJOURNAL. I like to think of it as renewing my vows to my dearest LJ.
I'm going to update more frequently and actually try to improve my writing while I'm at it.
Whether or not someone reads this is another story.
COOL.
The rise of the mainstream internet, my friends, social networking sites.
Journaling on a social networking/community site like PureRave, which I've been doing for the past few years, is a good time, but it gets repetitive and boring, and like Facebook, I never really want to "open up" or talk about things that are really meaningful. I simply have too many acquaintances on these sites who I don't think should be able to access every single thought I have or feel like sharing, even if the last thing they'd think of would to lurk my journal or notes or what-have-you.
It's not that I write really personal entries, I just prefer a tighter-knit communitylike feeling when I'm on the internet; Facebook is great for what it is, as is PureRave, but you don't really make friends out of the blue.
I suppose FB and PR are both extensions of my In Real Life social life. I use FB as a major communication tool; nobody uses MSN or e-mail anymore, but they're almost constantly accessible by FB. When I haven't had a cellphone or any phone I've been able to make plans and communicate with my friends over facebook with ease. But facebook also sickens me with its pillaging of our privacy and sneaky sketchery. I use facebook out of necessity, no longer out of appreciation.
PureRave is the next step toward community; it's a condensation or distillation of people on Facebook into a smaller community of people who have much more in common. They may not all be connected to the rave scene, but you can bet that they're at least affiliated with it or know someone who is in some way. We share event information, pictures, things we've found on the internet, and our thoughts through journaling. I prefer it to FB because of the journaling component.
I've been able to gain more intimate relationships with my IRL friends through what say in their journals: their experiences, what they might be struggling with in any aspect of their lives, their feelings about their days, opinions on books, movies, and so on. It's a great way to keep up with the goings-on of friends when you're out of town/province/the country. In comparison, Facebook has devolved into the "Like" button, where we don't even have to make the effort to type anything in and press send, we just click a button that gets all that hard stuff out of the way.
But PR journals remove a lot of the mystery from real-life relationships. When I meet up with a bunch of my friends we don't always know what to talk about because we already know, because we've already read one another's latest PR journals. Not to mention the number of really dumb entries people write, the frustrating amount of YouTube videos posted that no one is going to watch, and the entries so vague that they need not have been written in the first place.
I want a space on the internet where I don't have to censor myself because of what a friend of mine might think. I want a space to talk about friends or people by name and not have to fear the consequences that might come from someone telling someone else some misconstrued complaint or worry I had about a friend or aquaintance.
I want to be able to write about myself articulately and record my opinions unabashedly, and in return receive comments that are more substantial than "omg I agree", or "awww". Not that those previous were actual comments I've received...
I have rambled on for far too long; the moral of my story is this:
I AM RETURNING TO LIVEJOURNAL. I like to think of it as renewing my vows to my dearest LJ.
I'm going to update more frequently and actually try to improve my writing while I'm at it.
Whether or not someone reads this is another story.
COOL.