Journals
I've decided to sit down and force myself to write because my entries have been incredibly skimpy and few and far between. More than anything, i need to write because it's one of the only things that gives me true joy. I've been refraining from writing because i made a pact with myself a long time ago that i would never speak about anyone behind their backs, or discuss how any of my own heartbreak involves anyone else. I hate how these journals have become such sources of gossip and drama, and i decided from the start that the only person i'd talk about in this journal is the person i know best, but wonder about the most: myself.
To tell you the truth, the entire concept of public journals scares me quite a bit; the inevitability of the confrontations, backstabbing. Public journals give people the freedom to do what they know in their hearts they shouldn't. Anything that one might only think of saying to another person, whether it be hurtful, enlightening, confrontational, becomes actualized, but only through deception. People call these "journals," but in truth, they are little more than public forums of discussion. Thus, someone can say anything; they can tell their journal that their ex-best friend is fat and ugly, expecting their ex-best friend to read the statement and upsettedly ask about it. Here's where the magic of online journals happens. The journalist can tell the person who is horribly upset about the content in their journal that, "reading my journal is up to you and that it is composed of my private thoughts, and you have no right to become upset at me over them!" Am I crazy, or is this absolute bullshit? People write these backstabbing entries hoping that the one being stabbed reads it, or is hurt in some way. If the entry was really private, they would mark it as such. Oftentimes, the meanest of entries becomes a point of discussion and humor, just further humiliating he or she that it is about. people shroud their journals with a veil of privacy, but leave them open, and advertised. Writing your feelings about someone in a journal is exactly the same as saying it to the back of their head; the attacker can be as hurtful as he or she desires, but cannot see the tears on the victim's face. Malicious journals are a way of hiding behind opinions and aggression, with the pretense of supposed civility.
Thus, to whomever this may concern:
Understand that people do read your journals, and that cruelty behind a keyboard is just as petty as cruelty behind a back.
To tell you the truth, the entire concept of public journals scares me quite a bit; the inevitability of the confrontations, backstabbing. Public journals give people the freedom to do what they know in their hearts they shouldn't. Anything that one might only think of saying to another person, whether it be hurtful, enlightening, confrontational, becomes actualized, but only through deception. People call these "journals," but in truth, they are little more than public forums of discussion. Thus, someone can say anything; they can tell their journal that their ex-best friend is fat and ugly, expecting their ex-best friend to read the statement and upsettedly ask about it. Here's where the magic of online journals happens. The journalist can tell the person who is horribly upset about the content in their journal that, "reading my journal is up to you and that it is composed of my private thoughts, and you have no right to become upset at me over them!" Am I crazy, or is this absolute bullshit? People write these backstabbing entries hoping that the one being stabbed reads it, or is hurt in some way. If the entry was really private, they would mark it as such. Oftentimes, the meanest of entries becomes a point of discussion and humor, just further humiliating he or she that it is about. people shroud their journals with a veil of privacy, but leave them open, and advertised. Writing your feelings about someone in a journal is exactly the same as saying it to the back of their head; the attacker can be as hurtful as he or she desires, but cannot see the tears on the victim's face. Malicious journals are a way of hiding behind opinions and aggression, with the pretense of supposed civility.
Thus, to whomever this may concern:
Understand that people do read your journals, and that cruelty behind a keyboard is just as petty as cruelty behind a back.